


A Place for Both

by Velcar



Category: Sword Art Online
Genre: Drama, F/M, Friendship, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-30
Updated: 2016-11-01
Packaged: 2018-04-18 01:14:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 57
Words: 70,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4686719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Velcar/pseuds/Velcar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Trapped in a game that can kill him, a young man tries to protect himself and survive. But he might find there's far more he needs to protect than he ever dreamed. Follow our hero as he finds out just how "real" life can be in this virtual world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1 - Hunting

Hunting?  I guess you could call it that.  That is if hunting is described as wandering through a virtual forest, waiting for creatures to spawn, then engaging them in a battle to the death, that the only tools you had were a hand held weapon and a little bit of armour, all in the hopes of acquiring some form of loot and points that determined how skilled you were and how much damage you could absorb. Then hunting would define what I was doing.   
  
A battle to the death is not quite accurate. It's not as if the creatures really could die, they would simply shatter.  And after a while they would eventually re-spawn, without memory a battle that had killed them before.  But it wasn't devoid of death, as there was one life I did have to worry about.  Mine.  
  
Though I was in a virtual world, I couldn't get out.  The game creator removed the normal way of leaving the game.  All the players that had logged in on the day of the launch could no longer go back to the real world.  The only way to leave was to complete the game.  And to make matters worse, you only got 1 shot.  If you died in here, you died in the real world too.  It was the ultimate "Game Over".  
  
So I would put myself at risk every day I felt up for it.  I had to.  Just to exist in this world I had to acquire a minimum of wealth just to pay for the necesities.  The game was so realistic that I had to eat and sleep, equipment would wear out and had to be repaired or replaced, potions to maintain my health in battle had to be purchased.  I found that the best way to acquire money in this game was to get it from what the monsters droped.  And I got that by hunting and killing them.  
  
To get a handle on the creatures and maintain the upper hand in fights required that I chose my battles wisely; balancing my skill versus what the creatures could dish out.  I had to choose where I would fight so that I could be stronger and have a good chance of surviving the creatures that attacked me.  And whenever I was confronted with a creature that was too powerful, I usually just ran.   
  
Not everyone had the same strategy.  
  
"Yah!" I heard the sounds of fighting nearby.   
  
"Looks like I'm not the only one hunting today," I said to myself.   
  
"Ow!"  
  
-Yup, getting hit hurts.  
  
"Help! I don't wanna die!" yelled the player.  Then I heard a hich pitched scream of horror.  
  
"Wait! That's not right," I said aloud.  
  
The next thing I knew I was sprinting in the direction the screams were coming from. I took my short sword out as I ran, trying to ready myself for what I was about to confront.  It probably wasn't a good idea to just rush in, but something about that scream tugged at my very core :"No one should have to die out here."  
  
I got to the spot where the screams were coming from, adrenaline at it's maximum and my heart pumping like crazy. A girl stuck in a bunch of white strands, was unable to break free. A dagger, which I assume she had dropped, was out of her reach, and a large spider was about to finish her off. With no time to set the girl free, I quickly charged the spider and managed to get one hit in before it jumped back.  
  
That wasn't enough to stop the spider. It was a little tougher than what I would usually hunt. And by the looks of the predicament the girl was in, I'd have to contend with a web attack that could prevent me from defending myself. Luckily its health was down to half. The girl must have managed a couple of hits before it overwhelmed her.  
  
House spiders are one thing, they never bothered me in the least, but this thing was the size of a dog, I had to come up with a way to deal with it quickly. The spider attention turned to me.  But it wasn't moving it just looked at me, as if it was sizing me up. I watched as its hind section slowly curled under its abdomen.  
  
"Jump!" the girl screamed.   
  
A stream of filaments shot out from the spider and hit the spot where I was standing, just as I jumped out of the way. If the girl hadn't screamed I would have been covered in sticky strands and the spider would probably have had a duo for lunch.  I quickly got to my feet and with my sword skill now ready, I lunged for the spider's left side, slicing one set of legs clear off. It struggled to regain control but was hopelessly off balance and couldn't use its filament attack.   
  
"You're mine," I whispered and a few seconds later it was all over.  
  
I cut the girl out of her web prison and asked her if she was ok. She stared at me sshowing no expression and i misread her body language.  I lost all composure and for no reason started to rail on her.   
  
"What the hell are you doing out here," I scolded. "You could have been killed. If you can't handle the monsters just stay in the towns till they clear this thing. There may be no one to help you next time. What the hell were you thinking?"  
  
Her expression changed radically, I saw her face turn from shock to despair and her eyes fill with tears. She took one breath, buried her face in her hands and ran back to town. I watched her go and in my mind, I continued to curse her carelessness.  It took me a few minutes to calm down, after which I was no longer in the mood to do some more hunting.  
  
"That's enough stress for one day. Time to head back," I thought to myself.   
I checked the drops I got from the battle before leaving. The XP and Col were good enough, at least the day wasn't a waste. I didn't know what I was going to do with spider silk thread though. I hoped one of the shops would want it.  
  
The girl had abandoned her dagger in all the confusion. I picked it up and put it in my inventory there was no reason to leave it out here.  If she claimed it, I would at least be able to return it to her. I was still a little ticked off and felt that she shouldn't go hunting if she wasn't up for it, but on the other hand no one should be weaponless either.  
  
"Who was that girl?" I wondered.


	2. Village

Taran was a nice village, not as big as a town like Urbus, and certainly a far cry from the town of beginnings, but it had all the basics: an inn, a few food shops, a general store, weapon and armor shops, and quite a few rent-able shops that players had started renting. One player opened a stand that served a really good noodle soup. I would encourage his business by having a meal there on occasion. Generally it was a quiet place with few players, which was fine by me. I could work on leveling in relative peace.

It's tough to go up levels. I had to do all the town quests to make it to my current level. Long and tedious, to say the least, but at least your life is not on the line. I wouldn't have been able to walk out of town without raising my level at least a little. Just to get to Taran from Urbus required protection from other players who were kind enough to take me there. Town quests may be safe but they don't pay well. I'd probably have run out of money if I hadn't hunted.

I wandered through the streets looking for appropriate shops to unload my inventory. In the game the shops would buy stuff you wouldn't have imagined you could sell. But if a creature dropped it; you could sell it. I had some meat, a few bug shells, and some spider silk. "Who needs spider silk?" I wondered. "Perhaps a clothing shop would give me something for it." After I unloaded the rest of my inventory, I headed for the clothes shop. I greeted the NPC shop owner and he greeted me back.

"Welcome to my clothing store."

Typical greeting.

"I'm so glad you came in today, I'm in somewhat of a bind you see, and I was thinking you could help me."

Not your typical greeting.

I gathered this was some kind of quest. I agreed, so the shop owner continued. "I've been trying to get new materials for a dress, but this design requires me to mix spider silk with the other materials for strength. I've looked around but no one has any in stock. It should be collectible from the spiders that occupy the woods outside of town. Would you be able to get me some?"

The quest window popped up in front of me. "What a stroke of good luck : I HAVE the silk!" I thought to myself. I immediately accepted the quest. "Thank you, come and see me when you've got the silk," the store owner responded.

I left the store, turned around, and then walked back in, greeting the store owner as I had before. "Welcome to my clothes store. Did you manage to get some spider silk?" the NPC responded. I transferred the silk via my trade window and in exchange an item was traded back to me.

"Oh! This is perfect. Please accept these gloves in exchange for your troubles. Thank you and have a nice day." Looking at the trade window where the new item has appeared and I selected the item's information window. At the top it said "Spider silk gloves" and the details gave a general armor bonus with an extra bonus against spiders.

"This would have resisted the spider silk attack. I know someone who could have used this," I grumbled as I remembered the close call with the spider. Storing the gloves in my inventory, I noticed the dagger I put there earlier. "This isn't really mine; I should return it to her." My face screwed up out of personal annoyance.

"I don't even know her name."


	3. Tea shop

I just couldn't find the motivation to leave town and go hunting after I got up that morning. I'd overheard a party, as they passed by, that they were going to clean out whatever the forest could throw at them. They all seemed to have a level similar to mine but with six of them they certainly were more powerful; almost as if they were two to four levels higher then they would have been individually. The monsters take a while to spawn so if they cleared out the forest I could be out there all morning and get nothing.

I wasn't up for it anyway; my mind wasn't on hunting. I felt I was going to miss something if I left town. So, as it was, I was heading towards the shops to have a tea and think about it. I never found any coffee in Taran, which was a shame. It would be something worth seeking out if they had some in other villages, possibly on a higher floor. Tea would have to do for now.

I meandered through the little streets looking for the tea shop. It was a small outdoor shop that just serveed tea. The selection was meagre, but what they did serve tasted like tea. I greeted the NPC owner who promptly responded.

"Welcome to my tea shop."

Typical greeting, I thought to myself.

"Would you like some tea?"

Not a brilliant response considering I was at a tea shop.

I made my choice from the menu, paid for the tea, and sat at one of the tables that were setup in a terrace sort of way. I thought this would be a quiet day for me. No such luck. I took a sip of my tea froze in mid-sip! A girl was glaring at me. I looked behind me but there was no one else she could be looking at. So I looked back at her. She pursed her lips and I felt as though a knife was cutting into my brain. My whole body went cold.

She got up, walked up to my table, glared at me again for a moment, and then walked away. She stopped at the edge of the shop as if she was waiting for something to happen. "Get up you fool!" I heard my brain tell me. Nothing happened, I just sat there unable to move. "Get up now!" I got up that time. As I got up she left. I abandoned my tea and proceeded to follow her. My internal thermostat going haywire, I felt hot and cold at the same time, and the hairs on the back of my neck rising up like a threatened cat. Why was I feeling like this and why was I following her? Who was I following anyway?

Continuing down the street, she turned a corner and eventually stoped in the middle of a square with a small monument in it. She turned and glared at me as she did at the tea shop waiting for me to say something. I nearly tripped as I realized who this was, my eyes widened as I stood there in shock, recalling the spider encounter which was still fresh in my mind.

"You?" I said in a surprised voice. 

"Yeah me!" she replied, commanding my attention and making me feel very uncomfortable. "I've got something to say to you. So you'd better listen." I nodded slightly to indicate that I was as she dumped her anger on me.

"Who are you to tell me what to do? You're not the one who makes the rules. The only one who cares for me, is me. No one else does in this stupid game. Who cares if I live or die? I don't need you or anyone else to tell me what to do. I'll make my own choices. You railed on me like I was your little sister. You treated me like dirt. I was terrified and all you did was get all huffy, and scream at me. I don't need this. If you ever do that again I swear I'll beat you senseless." She turned away from me to hide her face and conceal her feelings. "I didn't ask for this," I heard her say as if to herself.

I bowed my head not knowing what else to do. "I'm sorry," I said, "I was out of line." There wasn't much else I could say at this point. The moment was to tense to do anything about it. I heard her footsteps slowly walking away and then stop.

*Ding*

I looked in front of me at the message window that has just appeared.

"Friend request from Karla. Please confirm."

I turned to look at her, but she was just standing there with her hand out in front of her. I accepted the requests, and watched her slowly walk away. Frozen where I stood I didn't know what to do with myself. I breathed deeply trying to calm down.

Karla...


	4. Friend List

I would often go for walks in the evenings around the town. I would stop at the edge of town and look at the spots where the mobs tended to spawn. Sometimes I would just take in whatever action was happening around town. That particular evening wasn't one to go out walking. I just laid in bed, staring at the ceiling, thinking of what had happened today. I kept seeing the message window popping up, even after Karla had vented her frustration and directed her anger at me.

"Friend request from Karla. Please confirm."

"I don't get it," I told myself "She's mad at me, that's a no brainer, and rightly so. I scolded her for something thousands of players are doing every day. Here's a girl I don't know an I get on her case, as she put it, "... like I was your little sister ...". I treated her badly and she should have ignored me, so why the request?"

"Friend request from Karla. Please confirm."

Outside the game I had friends: casual friends, university friends, even some gamer friends. But inside the game it was different; you could put your friends in real peril by your actions. When I realized that I was stuck in a game that could kill me and everyone else in it, I tried to isolate myself from people. I wanted to be alone. I wanted to get out. I wanted to find a way to end this without involving anything dangerous. I once spent a whole week attempting to break through the user interface, trying to find a flaw. That turned out to be a fruitless endeavor. The only thing I managed to do was to dump my entire inventory in front of me, right there on the street, including my armor, weapons and my clothes! I stood there in my underwear beside a pell-mell of the junk I was carrying. Now that was embarrassing.

When I finally accepted that I couldn't leave, I looked at my options. I took what information was available including what some of the beta-testers had supplied in a guidebook that was freely available in the shops. I also listened in to conversations of those who went hunting and came back alive. To stay alive you had to be more powerful than the forces confronting you. They also mentioned it was easier as a party, but on the flip-side, I considered it far more tragic. When a party member was killed the despair of the rest of the group became unbearable. I was not ready to deal with that level of grief, so I kept to myself. If I should die, no one else would have to suffer.

"Friend request from Karla. Please confirm."

Normally I would have refused. I'd been asked a couple of times to join a party or to "friend" someone, especially when returning from a day of hunting. Each time I turned them down. As a result I alienated a lot of people who considered my refusal as snobbish and condescending. Actually, I was scared.

So what made me say yes? It's as if I could not refuse, as if the cancel button had been disabled, as if I didn't control my own hand. "Un-friend-ing" her was always an option, but that could be considered rude, and I had been rude and inconsiderate enough as it was. I had no valid reason to remove her from my list. Even though I had convinced myself that I didn't want anyone on my list, I did not, not want her there. It seems I had been foiled by the double negative.

"Friend request from Karla. Please confirm."

Karla is a nice short name. With only 10 000 players it was easy to find a nice simple name that suited your personality and was pronounceable. In other MMOs that boasted millions of players, you could end up with a name like "boomboom23". In a full dive environment that could make conversation a little awkward. The name players picked was sometimes just that: a name. Other times it had a meaning or was a reference to the person's personality. "Maybe I'll ask Karla about her name and if there's a story behind it." I frowned at the thought.

"Would I even get a chance to do that?"


	5. Out Again

In the morning I chased the previous day's happenings from my mind and went hunting again. I was hoping for a drop to replace my short sword; its durability was running out. If I could get enough stuff to sell, I could buy myself a new one. It wasn't worth repairing a basic weapon; a new one would cost about the same. So determined to get something I spent the day in the forest killing and looting.

I returned to town just before nightfall. I wasn't going to do any night crawling. That was one of the rules I imposed myself: Never hunt at night. Spirit and undead monsters, reduced vision, and general creepiness are all part of the nighttime menu. There was also the very real possibility of getting lost. I worried that I might try to escape from a creature and take off in the wrong direction, only to end up deeper in the wilderness and not being able to get out. Not my cup of tea, so I stayed away.

"Not staying in town where it's safe, are we?" I heard someone say as I entered the town. 

I turned to where the comment came from. Karla was leaning against the nearest building, with crossed arms and one foot resting behind her on the wall. 

"Er, something like that," I said in a matter of fact way. 

Karla wasn't looking at me, even though her words were clearly shot in my direction. 

"Mister goes into the forest to fight and HE doesn't get scolded, n'est-ce pas? Oh! Maybe Mister is the only one who's allowed to complain." She pushed off from the wall and turned to face me. She put her hands on her hips and shifted her weight to her right foot. "You know what? If you went up a floor I'm sure you could find some girl that lacks your grand experience, who you can complain to for not staying safe. It must be dull down here not having anyone to yell at. Maybe you should put up an ad. I'm sure tons of people would love to hear you rant." Her tone was both cruel and sarcastic. She looked like she was ready to pick a fight. Oddly, even with a level above hers, it's not a fight I felt I would have won.

I've never been very good at reacting the right way. This time all I did was look at her, then look at my previous destination, then look back at her. If this game was a cartoon I would have had a big question mark over my head. She looked at me and then, just before turning away, made that sound that drives your parents crazy: "Tss." Disinterest and disgust combined and put into a tight little package delivered directly to me. It left me with the equivalent of a bad aftertaste. She then proceeded to walk back towards the center of town.

I watched her go and sighed. Obviously, she was still mad at me and my apology the other day wasn't enough. But why was she still here? Why did she even acknowledge my existence? People don't tend to hang around those that make them mad or sad. But she hadn't left, she didn't ignore me, it was confusing. Maybe, she wanted to troll me and make my life miserable, which would be a little creepy. I would have to take care of this. I imposed my view on someone else with no right to do so and it was going to gnaw at my soul if I didn't clear it up.

I proceeded to the area with the shops so that I could sell the monster drops I had just gotten. I managed to sell some of my stuff to other players, that were trying to raise their crafting skills, and the rest went to NPCs. It had been a good day of hunting and as such the money permitted me to replenish my stock of health potions and get myself a new sword. I would have more choices shopping in Urbus than here. But it was better than nothing. In my real life, I rarely enjoyed shopping; it seemed more like a necessary chore than a useful endeavor. But items in the game were directly usable and getting new stuff always made me feel stronger, more prepared, safer and happier. I wouldn't need to go hunting for the next couple of days, if I wanted.

"There are more important things to take care of."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy this story so far. I'll try to post once a week from now on.  
> Let me know what you think.


	6. Messages

The players were the only reality we had access to. It was the most precious thing in this virtual world. There were ten thousand players that started this game and, though I didn't know the exact count, more than two thousand were already dead. With such a small community it was important that we remained civil with each other. I had to bury the hatchet with Karla. It's not worth letting a bad situation degenerate into bitterness and alienation. I got an idea, on how to do that, when I was in the shops.

The shops sold all kinds of things that you wouldn't normally find in simpler MMOs. My first impression was that the items had no value and were there simply to pad out the shops. But when I realized that this world was the only reality that I would have for a while, what the shops sold suddenly made more sense. The range of housewares and tools, decorative items, gifts, and clothing was extensive. And none of the items had anything to do with clearing the game. I imagined the higher floors would also offer an even greater selection.

Some of the players had started to settle in and would start buying these types of items. At first it seemed they were trying to create a home base to operate from. But it was soon apparent that many were looking for a place to call home. Even I would rent a room for at least one week at a time. The room I was currently staying in had been my home for a little over two weeks now. I couldn't afford any of the furniture yet; I just settled for what the inns offered: a bed, a table, and a chair.

Among other things that were available, the gift shops had delivery boxes for sale. They looked like old postal boxes, wrapped in brown paper and tied up with string. They were mostly designed for sending multiple items via messages. The message system in the game was your basic email with the added feature that you could attach an item but only one item could be sent at a time. Usually players traded directly with each other. But messages could be sent even if the player was unavailable. So a box could be loaded with multiple items, sealed up, and messaged without the recipient needing to be present.

The boxes had other features, namely they could be left somewhere in the game. You could make stuff available to other players by leaving a box out on a table in an inn. You could also name the box so that only that player with that name would be able to open it. These were the two features I needed. I bought a box and put the spider silk gloves inside. I wrote a note as follows:

_The spider encounter permitted me to complete a quest._   
_You deserve them more than me._   
_I hope you make good use of them._   
_Wolf_

I inserted the note in the box and sealed it with Karla's name on it. A name tag appeared on the box with her name on it. I then sat down and wrote the following message to Karla.

_Karla,_

_I'm ashamed of how I acted. You're right; no one needs this._   
_I was really scared which is why I acted that way._   
_No one has the right to prevent you from trying to become better._

_Please have the courage to forget what I said and make your own decisions._   
_During our first meeting you dropped your dagger._   
_I wasn't sure if I would get to return it to you in person, so I've attached it to the message._

_Please don't hate me._

_Wolf_

_P.S. You may want to go to the town square and look at the small monument._

I rushed to the town square to placed the box at the foot of the monument. I hoped to myself that it wouldn't seem weird. I wanted this to be a gesture of peace and I hoped the message and the gift would come across as such. Heading back to the inn I was staying at, I felt both giddy and nervous, and hoped that she would accept my gift of good will. I would have to wait and see.

I spent the rest of the day hiding in my room. Unsure if I had done the right thing, in the right way. I started to fret, wondering if she got the message. I must have checked my friend list thirty times to see that she was still there. So when I got the notification that I'd received a message my heart was pounding hard in my chest and I nervously opened it:

_Wolf,_

_Thank you for returning my dagger. It means a lot._

_I don't think I should accept the gloves._   
_Though I appreciate the gesture, I feel you gave them to me out of guilt._   
_You can have them back if you wish._

_I've been thinking about what you said and about what I said._   
_I'm sorry; it's not fair to hold a grudge._   
_I owe you my life and I know that I can never pay you back._

_I'm still a little upset, but I don't hate you._   
_Please don't hate me, but I'll understand if you un-friend me._   
_I hope we all make it out._

_Stay safe._

_Karla_

I felt a tingle in my neck, as a goofy smile formed on my face.


	7. Party

It was getting harder to motivate myself to do some hunting. It had lost a lot of its charm and I was frustrated with my lack of progression. I needed to take on harder creatures if I wanted to level up but that meant getting out of my safe zone. I was afraid that I would not be able to keep my carelessness in check forever. I was imagining myself gloriously defeating a floor boss when the reality would probably be thousands of blue-green shards of light and the end of my existence. One thing did root me in this virtual reality. Two little words from a message I'd received: "Stay safe."

Three days had passed since Karla and I exchanged messages. We didn't cross each other at all during that time. Not that I was hiding from her or anything, it's just that I didn't hang around anywhere for very long. I kept to myself, mainly due to my frustrating lack of progress. So that morning when I headed out I didn't expect anything to be different.

I was following the same route I had taken the day after the spider incident. I got a feeling of déjà vu as I reached the last building before leaving town. I saw a girl, like I did that day, but this girl wasn't leaning against the wall with her hands crossed ready to pick a fight. This one sat on a rock with her arms around her legs and her chin on her knees, lazily looking out towards the wilderness. "Karla," I whispered to myself. She was wearing what little armour she had and a dagger which hung from her belt. Her hands were covered by really sleek looking black gloves decorated with subtle white lines.

As I approached, she turned her head and unfolded her legs and arms. 

"Hello Wolf," she said kindly. 

I nodded my head and promptly stopped her from saying anything else. As she sat there wondering what I was doing, I activated my menus, flipped through the options and found what I was looking for.

*blip*

Karla turned to the message window that has just appeared in front of her.

"Wolf has invited you to join his party"

She looked at me, looked back at the message window then looked at me again. I kept my eyes on my menus, so as not to influence her decision. The status changed: my party window now contained two entries and a message that read "Karla has joined your party." My heart skipped a beat as I closed my menus. 

Karla stood up from her rock, took a deep breath, and simply said, "I'm ready."

"Ever been in a party before?" I asked Karla. 

She shook her head. 

"You know how to switch?" I inquired. 

"Switch?" she said, not understanding what I meant. 

"Yeah," I continued, "We fight the same target, and while one player attacks the creature, the other can charge their sword skills. Then the players switch and they can attack right away." Karla nodded, taking in this information. "It's also much easier to take health potions during combat. Are you carrying health potions?" I worried. 

"I have two. It … it's all I could afford." Her voice broke a little. 

I didn't miss a beat and simply opened my menu and traded two of my six potions to her. A little embarrassed she accepted the potions. 

"I prefer the potions to be evenly distributed," I said, trying to sound as banal as I could. She didn't argue but I could tell she felt bad accepting them.

We were off the road fairly soon after leaving town, our goal being to actually encounter mobs and not to avoid them. It didn't take long before we encountered a wild ox. It bellowed menacingly. I turned to Karla to see if she was ready for this. Her dagger was out and her sword skill was already charged. I got my sword out and nodded to her. She didn't need any more prompting than that. As she took off, the ox charged. She did a side step and twirled at the same speed the ox was moving, and then slammed her dagger in the ox's side. The ox staggered slightly then turned its head towards Karla attempting to gore her with its horns. That was my cue. I slammed my sword on the ox's head hitting the right side of its face. The ox's HP was in the red. The ox turned its head and managed to cut my arm with one of its horns. The ox's attention was no longer on Karla, who flipped her dagger in her hand and rammed it in the ox's throat. The ox shuddered, then in a flash of light burst into hundreds of blue sparks.

As the encounter window showed us our XP and Col, Karla looked at me. I nodded in response. She was ok to continue and so was I. I had taken some damage but not enough to waste a potion on. So we continued our delve into the wilderness, now seeking slightly stronger creatures. Things were progressing nicely: we managed to take on some snakes, a few wind wasps, a large flower with tentacles, and a couple of kobolds. It was much easier with the two of us taking them on. With Karla getting the hang of switching, we both began to understand how to work together and what the most successful sequence of attacks would be considering our limited skills. We pushed through the wilderness a little more, feeling confident and a little cocky. We might have let our guard down too much.

Without warning, a large aggressive ox materialized a few meters in front of us, and letting out a ferocious bellow, it charged in our direction. I pushed Karla to the side as I jumped the other way, just in time to avoid the beast's huge horns. I got up as fast as I could, grabbed the hilt of my sword and charged a sword skill. Karla rolled on the ground, after I had pushed, her and managed take a stance without getting up. Her right leg was bent under her ready to push off and her left was outstretched for balance. While her left hand helped to maintain her pose, she reached for her dagger with her right hand and prepared her attack. We simultaneously launched our attack. I charged the ox trying to make my sword connect with its side. Karla was aiming for the neck. Though we both managed to hit it, we hardly had an impact on its health bar. It had far more HP than the both of us combined and we only managed to aggravate it. The ox twisted its head and gored Karla through the shoulder. In doing so it shifted its weight and rammed it's body against mine and I was pushed aside. I had to go down on all fours just to regain control. Karla screamed! The horn was stuck in her shoulder and the ox wasn't letting go. With no time to ready a sword skill, and Karla's health depleting rapidly, I simply went for its neck. The attack was weak but made the ox drop Karla.

There was no way we could win against it. If we stayed and fought we would surely die. Karla yelled what my mind was already screaming. "Run!" Karla said as she took off like a rocket. I didn't hesitate and took off in the same direction. The ox bellowed loudly then charged in our direction. It was going to be tough to out run it; I was going full tilt and so was Karla. The ox was catching up, and I was at a loss for a way to stop it. I looked to Karla desperate for a solution. Then I saw her make her move: while running, and with a charged sword skill, she flipped her dagger in mid step, jumped, twisted her body, and launched the dagger at the ox. She rolled on the ground, got up, and resumed her run. I kept my pace up too and we ran.

Karla's spectacular show of skill paid off. The ox was hit in the face with the dagger causing it to trip and tumble to the ground. We didn't stop to look back till we got to the edge of town. We were relieved to know that nothing was following us. We had managed to get away safe. Karla was bent over with her hands on her knees looking out of breath. I was worried now, I felt I had put her in danger. I cringed when Karla turned her head to look at me.

Then she laughed.


	8. A Name

Karla was laughing! Not a sarcastic chuckle, or forced laugh just to be polite, this was a laugh without restraint, a nice honest belly laugh. She could have put Santa Clause to shame. And it was contagious. I smiled as the tension left my body, collapsed to a sitting position and laughed myself silly. Anyone walking by would have thought we had flipped our lids. And to be honest, we wouldn't have cared.

The laughing slowly subsided and was replaced with a peaceful silence between us. Karla shifted so that she now sat next to me, with her legs pulled up to her chest, and her chin resting on her hands. I was sitting cross-legged, absentmindedly playing with bits of grass. For a while we just sat there staring out into the wilderness.

"Thank you," Karla said. I turned my head to look at her. Her head was resting sideways on her hands. 

"No problem," I replied, "but I never wanted to put us in that much danger. Sorry about that," I apologized. 

"It's OK. I needed to face it," Karla said as she looked out into the wilderness again, but her eyes were fixed on the ground. "Either face it, or go back to cowering in a corner of a room in my inn, afraid to go anywhere." Her eyes then took on a determined look. "No. I will face it and overcome my fears. After all I am Karla, and Karla would never back away. She'll always take on whatever the world throws at her." Her voice lacked the confidence of her words as she spoke them. She nodded to herself a couple of time after saying this.

I knew I might regret the question later but I felt there was something she was holding back. 

"Who is Karla?" I asked softly. 

"I beg your pardon?" she replied, not quite understanding the question. She thought the answer was obvious; why would I be asking such a question? 

Without changing my tone of voice, I repeated the question. "Who is Karla?". 

"I am!" she said. "Are you suffering from a loss of memory? I'm on your friends list. What a strange question." I closed my eyes and chuckled slightly at her remark partially because of how she had ended up on my list and partially to the way she had just reacted. 

I looked to the wilderness and said, "I know your name is Karla, but it's probably not your real name. Not that I need to know your real name or anything, it would be rude of me to ask. But the way you talked about 'Karla' just now, it's as if you were talking about someone else. It may be none of my business, but I am curious: Who is Karla?"

She was shocked by the question and a little upset. "You sure know how to make a girl uncomfortable," she said annoyed. "My real name isn't Karla. So what? I bet your real name's not Wolf. When I first logged in, it asked me for a name, so I said the first name that came to mind and nothing more. The reason I chose it, is none of your business!" she huffed "I don't go around asking people those kind of personal questions. I don't know anything about you, Mr. Wolf," she challenged. 

She was noticeably upset. The question turned out to be a touchy subject, and I wasn't prepared for this. I thought it might be better not to say anything. 

She pursed her lips, and after a few minutes of silence said, "Maybe I should go."

"Lone Wolf," I stated before she had time to get up and leave. She looked at me, waiting for some clarification. "Lone Wolf is where I got my name." I sighed. "I was going to play this game solo so it seemed appropriate. And when the game turned into a prison, I didn't want to be near or with anyone. The name took on a vividly cruel meaning: it became my reality. I isolated myself and only interacted with others if I needed directions or information. I'd sworn that my friend list would stay empty."

"But it's no longer empty. There's this girl who pulled me out of my cocoon, and shook the bitter isolation out of me. And now she's on my list." I breathed deeply. "You're the only one I've connected with since this game started. You broke the certainty of Lone Wolf. I'm just Wolf now, and kind of glad that it turned out that way." I shrugged my shoulders. "So that's the very short story of my name," I concluded "It's nothing spectacular, it's just who I am. I've had no one to share it with, until now. I feel it's only fair that I tell you." I turned to Karla. "Forgive me for prying into your personal affairs. And forget that I even asked. I enjoy our time together and I don't want to ruin the day with my stupid questions. Please don't go," I pleaded.

"You enjoy almost getting killed?" she said indignant. "I didn't know I'd spent the day with a masochist. I guess I'll have to hang around to keep an eye on you. I don't want you to get run over by any other animals. I think we've both had enough "bull" for the day." I frowned at her obvious joke, and I could see she was barely containing a smile. Her smile broadened as I looked at her and she giggled a little. 

"Bad pun!" I huffed in response.

We laughed.


	9. Time to go

"I need a new dagger," Karla said.

"Yeah, you keep losing the other one," I replied without missing a beat.

"Oh you little …" Karla growled as she pushed me.

"No! No! Don't kill me!" I joked.

She harrumphed and crossed her arms.

We headed to the shops and bought a dagger to replace the one Karla had used to save us from the ox. From that point on we went hunting every day. We stuck to the safest zones we could identify. We didn't have to go deeper into the wilderness as there wasn't much competition. Most players had either stayed in the starting town or were already on higher floors. Floors five and six had been beaten which meant that more places were accessible and could be occupied.

Each day after hunting we would go to the shops and sell the stuff the monsters dropped. Afterwards we would sit somewhere to eat and discuss our tactics: how we did that day and what we should be doing the next day. Our abilities were not the same: Karla's agility was higher than mine but I had better strength. We were taking advantage of the differences in our attributes as best we could. I would take the creatures head on and block the attacks as to try and keep them busy, while Karla would target the creature's weak spot or attack from behind, and dodging attacks when they would retaliate. If the creature's mobility was too high we would attack in sequence, switching in and out to let the sword skills cool down and be able to prepare the next one.

If we came across a creature that risked putting us in serious danger, we would usually just try to escape from it. We had a mutual understanding that if one of us yelled "Run!", we would just hightail it out of there. It was never up for debate. We had agreed to this early in the week, and it came into play a couple of times. Even if I felt that we were running from a beatable creature I would not discuss it. I would never judge her decision when it came to our safety and she did the same. We preferred the safety net it provided and enjoyed the trust building between us.

By the end of a week Karla had gone up three levels and I had gained two. This was great and we should have been celebrating. But, that evening, we had a simple meal at our inn, almost in silence, sticking to small talk about the meal and the weather. Talking about the weather in game was a little pointless as it rarely changed. Something was bothering me and I didn't know what to do.

"OK Wolf. Spit it out. What's bothering you?" Karla asked.

"I think we need to move," I nervously said. Karla shifted in her seat but was obviously interested in what I was proposing.

"Go on." She said inquisitively.

"I don't think we will be able to progress without going deeper into the wilderness. Either that or taking on a dungeon, and with the rumors of traps and odd happenings in there I'm not quite ready. If we went up a floor or two we could hunt close to town. We'd be able to go up levels faster while maintaining our current tactics. Once we've improved sufficiently, we could come back and take on those challenges." I looked at Karla to see her reaction.

"I was thinking the same thing," Karla replied satisfied that we were on the same page. She bit her lower lip before continuing "But, I don't know how ready we are. Our armor is only one notch above the basics and I can't say much more about our weapons. We need to get better stuff. A shame the shops around here don't carry more advanced equipment." She looked at me with expectation, she wanted me to say what she was thinking.

"Urbus," I said as the corner of Karla's mouth curled up. "They have a full complement of shops and smiths that we could get equipment from."

"I thought you'd never suggest it," Karla said smiling at the prospect of a change of pace. She gently put her hand on my shoulder as she got up from the table "We'll leave tomorrow when it's light." I watched her go up the stairs to her room.

I was so worried about asking her to go to Urbus with me. I thought she might be scared of travelling far from town. I felt relieved that she had agreed to go. This was a step for me too as I had required protection to get here, but now we were travelling with the ability to protect ourselves. I went up to my room and laid on the bed. I put my hand where Karla had rested hers. I smiled, relaxed, closed my eyes and gently fell asleep.

* * *

The morning came quickly and I was awoken by a rap on the door.

"Come on, sleepyhead, we gotta get going," Karla said through the door.

This was new. Karla had never knocked on my door before. "Give me a minute," I replied.

"I'll be in front of the inn," she called back before heading down the stairs.

I wanted to go back to sleep but the trip to Urbus was going to take a good part of the day. Also, Karla was waiting for me, and that gave me a little extra boost. So I got up and equipped my armor and my sword, then took a look around the room as if to check that I hadn't forgotten anything. But of course everything I had was in my inventory; it was hard to leave anything behind. Feeling a little silly, I left the room, which had been my home for the last two weeks, headed down the stairs and out into the street.

"Ugh! Finally! You ready?" Karla groaned.

She was all ready to go and I hadn't even had breakfast yet.

"I packed some food for the trip. Don't worry, you won't starve," she jeered as if reading my mind. Opening her inventory window she materialized an apple like fruit and tossed it to me. "That'll hold you for a while."

I caught it, looked at it, looked at Karla, smirked, and took a greedy bite. It was refreshing to see Karla take the lead. It's as if this was her trip.

With Karla setting the pace we headed out of town.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's like having them go shopping. I also prefer traveling a bit to get to the right shop.  
> Hope you enjoyed the chapter.  
> Leave me a note, tell me what you think.


	10. Road

Floor two was in essence a patchwork of plateaus separated by valleys. The plateaus were quite flat, and very savannah-like, with a grassy surface and very few trees. They were approximately the same height throughout the floor, with only a few exceptions. While on the plateaus we could usually see the creatures before we got close enough for them to take notice, which permitted us to avoid most encounters quite easily. The valleys on the other hand were quite rocky, especially near the edges, with high bushes and thin trees. This made avoiding creatures a bit trickier. They had more places to hide and in some cases there wasn't enough room to circle around them.

As it was, travel to Urbus was not exactly a safe trip. Mobs did spawn along the road and we had to fight some of then along the way. Running away was not a very good tactic as we would be too far from a safe zone and risked triggering other mobs we passed as we ran. On the other hand very few creatures spawned directly on the road, so we took it slowly, stuck to the road and only fought the creatures that attacked us.

In fact the safest place was where the road climbed up to the edge of a plateau. That spot did not seem to belong to neither the plateau nor to the valley; creatures simply never spawned there. As we got to the last plateau before Urbus, we took a rest on the side of the road in this transition space. Karla opened her menu and materialized two flasks of water and some bread. 

"So were on a bread and water diet?" I teased. I knew she hadn't wanted to spend too much as we didn't know how much our new equipment would cost. 

"You expected me to cook for you?" Karla said with fake indignation as she played along with my tease. "Men! They're all the same," she said rolling her eyes.

I was about to reply, but Karla stopped me, something had gotten her attention. I listened and could hear the sound of fighting nearby. Karla put her hand on my arm as she listened intently at the fighting. I could distinguish the shouts of two individuals which I assumed had gone out to do some hunting. That would be good for us as we would have fewer mobs to contend with before reaching the town. Karla squeezed my arm, 

"What's wrong," I asked. She looked at me. 

"They're kids and they're in trouble." She tugged at my arm. "C'mon!" she pleaded.

We broke into a run and took out our weapons as we ran. Two boys, not even in their teens, were trying to handle an aggressive ox. The older boy had just been knocked off balance and was lying on his back and the ox was about to trample him. 

"Shin, help me!" the boy cried in despair. The other boy seemed frozen in place holding his short sword with both hands and shaking uncontrollably.

I didn't slow my run and headed to intercept the ox. Holding my sword horizontally and keeping it steady with my left hand I slammed the ox hard in the head. I managed to push the ox out of the way and it narrowly missed the older boy. 

"Get up boy!" I command. He got up and positioned himself next to me with his mace ready to strike. "Take a potion before you engage!" I told him. He stepped back and grabbed a potion from the pouch on his belt.

"We're here to help," Karla said to the other boy as she took position next to him. 

I don't know if it was the words or the smile but the boy stopped trembling. Karla prepared herself getting ready to charge in when the ox would be off its guard. That meant I would have to engage it first for her attack to be the most effective. We had run away from it, over a week ago, but now there was more at stake.

The ox had recovered from my shove and was preparing another charge. There was no way I would let it get its way. I ran towards it, and slammed my sword square on the head. That had a dazing effect on the ox and prevented it from charging. Karla, seizing the opportunity, slammed her dagger into the ox's side, and followed it with an upward stroke leaving a huge gash. A flash of blue light and a downward arc told me that the older boy had recovered and was taking part of the melee.

Though the ox was taking a beating it still managed to recover from my block and was now targeting me. It swung its head left and right. I managed to block one of the horns but the other connected, cutting me and pushing me back, taking a fair chunk of my health. Those horns were sharp. I cursed the size of my sword: a larger weapon or a shield would have better protected me in this case. I found a little comfort that if the ox was targeting me; the others would take minimal damage. But I would need to take a potion if I was to keep this up.

"I got this," the older boy said as he took another swing at the ox, giving me the opportunity to take a potion, so I backed away. As I did, the ox did a kickback and hit Karla hard. She was knocked to the ground. The ox then reared on its hind legs and in so doing knocked the older boy to the ground and was about to come down hard on him. 

"No!" came a voice in a scream from behind the ox. The ox froze in mid-step, it then swelled and blew up into hundreds of blue crystals of light.

As the shards disappeared and the congratulation window appeared, I saw the younger boy with his sword in hand in the spot the ox was a second ago. The young boy looked to the older boy, and started shaking uncontrollably. The older boy got to his feet and ran over, and hugged the boy tight. 

"I couldn't move Ry, I'm sorry. I was too scared," the younger boy said crying. 

"But, you got him Shin! You really did!" the older boy replied

I looked to Karla, she was dusting herself off. She looked at me with an expression that said "How do we get into these predicaments." 

She went over to the two boys and said "It's not safe here. Let's go." They got up without objection, sheathed their weapons and looked at Karla for further instructions. 

"We'll take you back to town," Karla said and looked at me. I nodded and we made our way to the road.

On the way to town the boys introduced themselves. 

"I'm Ory and this is my brother Sharpclaw," said the older brother. The younger brother shyly waved. 

Karla looked at him "Sharpclaw eh? That's a cool name," she said, and smiled at him. 

Sharpclaw smiled proudly. Those weren't the names they had called themselves during the battle, I guess their real names had slipped out when the stress got too high.

"I know what you're thinking: what are two kids doing in this game?" Ory said. "Our parents bought the game for themselves. They're both gamers, and they said we could try the game after they had checked if it was ok for us. But we couldn't wait to try it. So when our parents said they had to go out for a bit, and mom had asked me to keep an eye on Sharpclaw here, we snuck into their bedroom and put the gear on." 

"We were only supposed to play for a bit," Sharpclaw interjected guiltily, "but now we can't get out." Ory put his hand on his brothers shoulder. 

"We want to help to clear the game but were not good enough yet. We need to get stronger," Ory said. 

"You will. But don't rush it. It'll take time," I encouraged.

As we got to the edge of town inside the safe zone, Ory tugged at his brother and made him bow. 

"Thank you for saving me and my brother, we do not wish to trouble you anymore." I looked at them and Karla put her hand on Sharpclaw's head. 

"Your welcome," I said. They turned towards town and we watched them go.

"I'm surprised you didn't get on their case for being in over their heads," Karla said sarcastically. "Or maybe I just get special treatment, hmm?" She did a very cutesy 'lady in distress' act as she says this. 

"Har, har," I replied, feeling teased. "I learnt my lesson well enough the first time. I did NOT want to go through THAT a second time. And ... well ... apart from all that: You are special. At least you are to me." Karla stopped her cutesy act a bit surprised at my comment.

Red cheeks really suited her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy the story so far.  
> I haven't had many comments on whether or not you like it yet.  
> Please let me know.


	11. Bully

Urbus was a very different city than Taran. The whole town sat in a shallow crater carved out from the top of a plateau. It looked like the buildings were hollowed out of the rock itself. None of them were more than two stories high. The stone being all of the same colour made it hard to distinguish where one dwelling ended and the next started. Only the doors gave us an indication that there was more than 1 dwelling along a wall. The town wasn't drab to say the least, there were plenty of potted plants, various decorations along the walls and colourful carpets people used to sit on.

We were less interested by the town itself than what we would be available to get from the shops. We headed into the centre of town to look for a place that sold armour and weapons. There we found what we were looking for: The market place. It wasn't as big as the one in starting town, but compared to Taran it was huge. The place was vibrant with vendor stands of all kinds. We browsed the stands for a bit, but we weren't certain what we wanted exactly.

Sure we could simply trade in our current weapons for the same type: I could get a bigger sword, Karla could get a sharper dagger. But I wasn't sure anymore if a sword was the right weapon for me. I tended to go for brute strength instead of an agile strike. Karla, on the other hand, was very agile. She could do wonders with that dagger of hers. But a dagger's reach is limited and ill suited for solo combat. A second dagger would have helped, but the game didn't seem to offer a dual blade skill. I think we both needed a change, but I didn't know to what.

"Hey you!" some one called out. I turned around to see what was going on. A big guy with his fists on his waist was standing in the street with a small group of less than savoury characters. Other players were getting out of the way, leaving an empty space between him and myself. I turned my back to him, preferring to ignore him. "Hey, I'm talking to you!" the big guy said raising his voice. 

"Actually you're yelling at me," I said as calmly as I could. I tried to act as nonchalant as possible "What do you want?" I said annoyed. 

"Seeing that you're new around here, I imagine you don't know who we are. We run the Kabel fund to help the most deserving, and we noticed you hadn't contributed yet," the guy responded. 

"You must be Kabel, and I take it your gang would be the most deserving?" I asked even though it was pretty obvious. He bowed exaggeratedly. "I have no money to give you. So I suggest you ask elsewhere for your 'contributions'." 

"Such a shame," he replied a little taken aback. Then quickly regaining his composure he continued "Well seeing that you refuse and you being new to this town, I feel we should properly 'welcome' you." He stressed the word "welcome". I crossed my arm to help calm my nerves, not knowing where this was going.

"I like to 'know' the people that come into town. And the best way is with a show of ability," the big guy said smiling. "So you will duel me. That way I'll know what you're capable of doing with that little sword of yours." 

He brought up his menu and sent me a duel request. The rest of the group laugh and smiled evilly. I looked at the duel request. I looked towards Karla; she looked worried by all this, but did not say anything. I smiled at her and turned back to face the Kabel. I couldn't actually die in a duel while I was in town, but that aside if I did duel him he would be able to asses my strengths and weaknesses. Right now he assumed I wasn't very strong and that all I had was a short sword and I wanted to keep it that way.

"No," I said as I refused the duel. "I will not duel the likes of you." He looked at me shocked. "I don't have anything to prove to half-wit punks that think they can bully whoever they come in contact with. I won't be made the target of a frustrated teenager that thinks way too highly of himself. Go waste someone else time." I turned and nodding to Karla, I walked away. Karla stayed back so as not to draw attention to herself. 

"You'll regret it!" The Kabel yelled at me. I just kept walking.

I didn't actually know where to go as the city was unfamiliar to me. I would have to quickly choose a direction that made me look as though I knew where I was going. I wanted to show Kabel and his gang that I was confident and not to be reckoned with. 

"Over here!" Ory was waving to me from a small alleyway. I casually made my way to where Ory was, and ducking into the alley I turned to peek to see if any of the thugs had followed me. Relieved to see no one had followed me, I looked to see if I could see Karla. She wasn't in the market place anymore. 

I turned to Ory and asked: "Did you see where Karla went?" 

"I sent Sharpclaw to get her. C'mon!" Ory said as he urged me to follow him.

We went through several streets before we got to a small inn off the main streets. It was hard to tell it was there at all. I certainly could not have found it myself and was it not for the sign on the door, you wouldn't know you were in front of an Inn. Ory went straight in without hesitation and I followed. I was relieved to see Karla and Sharpclaw sitting at a table in the common room.

"Who the hell does he think he is!" Karla said as Ory and I sat down. "I don't know how you kept your cool. I would have whipped him senseless." 

"I thought you were going to take him on," Ory said, slightly disappointed. "Though we try to stay as far from him as we can." 

"No one's taking on anyone," I stated "I don't want to be fighting other players, even if it is for a duel. There's enough fighting to do just with the mobs. The reason I didn't fight him, wasn't because I didn't want to, but because he was pushing me to it. And I'm not going to let a thug like him force me to do anything. We only wanted to upgrade our gear. Couldn't that idiot just leave us alone?" I was fuming and my fists were clenched on the table in front of me. Karla put her hand on my fist and gently uncurled my fingers. Her action had a calming effect on me. I took a deep breath and regained my composure.

"Because of all that we weren't able to buy new weapons or armour. I don't even know what I want anyways," I complained. 

"Kabel's on the street. It would be better if you didn't go back to the market right now," Ory said. "You can get rooms in this inn for tonight, if you'd like, and buy your stuff tomorrow." 

"That's a good idea," Karla said "That way we'll have time to think about what we want and we won't have to spend too much time in the market, especially with that Kabel character roaming around." 

I was going over all this in my head when I saw Sharpclaw whisper something in Ory's ear. Sharpclaw was giggling and Ory was smiling in spite of himself. I looked down to see what was so humorous.

Karla's hand was still holding mine.


	12. Katana

Karla realized she was still holding my hand and removed it, holding it at chest level for a moment before putting it on her lap. I simply curled my fingers into a loose fist as if I was still holding something. The moment wasn't unpleasant but it sure was awkward, especially with Sharpclaw still giggling.

Ory got up and cleared his throat. "We got to get going," He said. "C'mon Sharpclaw."

"Aw! I was having fun," Sharpclaw grumbled.

Karla and I both smiled. The boys left and we each reserved a room at the inn to spend the night. We needed a place to sleep and this was as good a place as any. Being off the beaten path we were unlikely to come across any unwanted company. We ordered a light meal and started talking about our choices for the next day.

"Wolf, do you have any idea what to get yourself?" Karla asked.

I shrugged my shoulders and shook my head slowly. "My sword doesn't have enough power." I replied "I can't seem to land the blows with enough force."

"Aren't you supposed to make precise attacks with a sword? Maybe you're not using the right skills to make it effective," Karla suggested.

"My agility is too low compared to my strength. Only my brute force attacks have any real impact," I answered.

"You could get a shield. That would really help you block incoming attacks," she suggested again.

"That wouldn't solve my problem with the sword. I really need to get something different." I sighed. Karla proceeded to batter me with suggestions which I responded to.

"Two handed sword" "It's still a sword."  
"Dagger?" "Too small."  
"Spear?" "Too long."  
"Mace!" "Not for me."  
"Pole arm?" "Too long, didn't I say that already?"  
"Flail." "Ouch, too vicious."  
"Dagger." "Didn't YOU say that already?"  
"War Hammer." "Too much like the mace."  
"Battle axe." "Hmpf."  
"Pitch Fork?" "Huh. What? No!"  
"Spoon?" "That's … now you're just messing with me."

Karla would have continued and gotten far sillier had I not stopped her. "Wait. Go back two."

"Battle axe?" she asked. I nodded and waiting for her opinion. "Big stick, dual blades, hack and slash, somewhat barbaric, what do you want to know?" she said slightly disgusted.

"I know what it is. What do you think of me using one?" I insisted.

"I think you're crazy," she said bluntly, looking at me to see if I was serious "Ok, whatever. It certainly isn't my pick of weapon, but it does fit a strength based fighter."

"It does, doesn't it?" I said as I sat back relaxed in my seat, satisfied that it would be the right weapon for me. Karla just sat there shaking her head. It was obviously not her cup of tea. "The battleaxe will be good against a single large target, both for blocking and for massive damage. It will also be good with groups of creatures as a swing can hit more than one target. Even considering the slow sword skill recharge." I detailed, trying to get Karla to accept my choice. I was obviously more enthusiastic than she was.

"Ok Mr. Satisfied, what about me?" Karla said. I shook myself from my reverie.

"You do wonders with the dagger, but it's mostly good for stabbing and you always have to get so close to your target," I said.

"I know. The daggers have always left me wanting for a little more reach. I need a sword, a long sword probably. What do you think?" Karla looked at me hopping for my ok.

"No," I said slyly.

"No? Why?" she scowled.

"Not just a sword: a katana! I bet you could do wonders with one." Her eyes lit up.

"A katana? I didn't even consider it before." Karla said enthused "It's probably effective against an agile creature and I can almost guarantee a hit against a slow one. It won't do as much damage as your battleaxe, but I can keep my stabbing skills and I should get good slashing skills as a bonus over the dagger. Yeah, I could handle that," Karla said as she smiled broadly.

"Look who's the satisfied one now?" I said.

We sat there for a bit finishing our meal discussing how our battles would have been different had we switched weapons earlier. We had no plans for the evening so there was no rush and it's not as if anyone else needed our table. As our conversation died down to nothing, Karla, not knowing what to do with herself, got up and said, "Well I guess I'll just go to bed." She turned and headed towards the stair.

"Karla," I called after her, not really knowing why. She turned to look at me. "I ..." I hesitated as I felt my face get hot. "Oh never mind. Sleep well," I said reluctantly.

"Good night, Wolf," Karla said before turning back and heading up the stairs.

I sat back in my chair feeling a little disappointed; wondering why I gave up asking her to stay up tonight. We had nothing planned, plenty of time, and for all intents and purposes a private place to spend the evening. It would have been nice to sit and chat. Even if we spent most of our time together, we knew very little about each other. I couldn't muster enough courage to ask her about herself. She had already made a scene when I asked about where her name came from. But it would be nice to know a little more.

* * *

I got up around mid-morning, which didn't feel right. Not that I slept badly or anything, the night was quite restful. But I thought I would have been woken up by Karla banging on my door. Was she sleeping in this morning? That would have been unusual. I went down to the inn's common room, which was empty except for the NPC owner and a waitress. Karla was nowhere to be seen. I was too groggy to worry about it, and anyway it was safe enough in town. I guess she needed a little time to herself.

I sat at a table and the waitress came over. "Can I take your order?"

"Coffee?" I asked hoping for a miracle.

"I'm sorry sir we don't have that," the waitress said.

Of all the things that were chosen to be included in this game, why did they not include coffee? Some days I hate this game more than others. Bugs attack you, you never have enough money, you're never satisfied with your level, or your skills. But all that is dwarfed by my most basic desire for a drink of infused dark roasted beans. "Why can't I get a coffee?" My inner voice cried out in despair.

"I'll take a strong tea please." I say with an exaggerated smile, as I try to hide my disapointment. It's a good thing NPCs can't read body language. The waitress promptly trotted off to the kitchen and returned with a pot of tea and a couple of cups. "Tea is best shared with a friend," I told myself as I again wondered where Karla had got to. She was free to go and do whatever she wanted, of course. But I'd gotten use to her being around.

The inn door opened and I saw a woman enter the inn. She put her hands on her hips, looked around the common room then headed straight to my table. I looked up to see who it was. I stared with my mouth agape: Karla had changed her look.

"Well, you like?" Karla asked.

She was wearing a full leather breastplate that went down mid-thigh in the front and the back, circled with a belt at the waist. Under the armour she had a tight fitting burgundy long-sleeved shirt and straight skirt that went down below her knee on the left and the back but only mid-thigh in front and on her right side. She also had matching over the knee socks and a pair of tight fitting boots that stopped just below the knee. Hanging from her belt on the left side was a brand new katana. The most striking change was her hair. It was now jet black with a strand of white in front and to the side.

"You look fine ... uh nice ... uh very nice," I managed to say, still surprised by the change. She twirled in place to show off her new gear.

"I didn't wake you 'cause I wanted to surprise you. And by the way you're ogling me, I'd say I was successful," she said teasingly.

I quickly looked away and rubbed the back of my neck. My face was burning.

"Oh good you ordered tea," Karla said as she sat down and poured herself a cup. She sipped slowly while keeping her eyes on me; a mocking smile ever present on her lips. She was thoroughly enjoying herself.

After our tea we headed out to the marketplace and I found the weapon I was looking for: a double bladed battleaxe, approximately one meter in length, with a comfortable, two handed grip. It also could be gripped the whole length of the handle to hold on to when blocking. As for armour, I opted for a metal breastplate, shoulder guards, wrist guards and a pair of leather boots reinforced with metal plates on the shin and around the ankle. My choice was less stylish than Karla's but it suited my needs.

"Shall we go try out our new equipment?" I asked Karla as I slung my battleaxe on my back. She smiled, and tapped the hilt of her new katana.

"Let's see what this baby can do."


	13. Conflict

So we were out hunting, as we had so many times before. But with the equipment upgrade we'd given ourselves it was far easier. I could really feel the difference the battle axe had on my strength attacks and I could block longer. Karla was showing great skill with the katana and when she got up close rarely did the creature stand a chance. All and all we were having a good day. But good days don't always stay that way.

Out of nowhere, four players surrounded us, short swords and daggers in hand. And without warning they rushed us. I managed to move out of the way of the first one, take out the battle axe and block the second player's attack. Why were they attacking us? The players made a second attack, which I blocked surprisingly easily. It was as if they were trying to avoid hitting me. Karla had managed to trip the third player but he rolled and got back up. The fourth faked an attack move as Karla swung her Katana and it connected. I swung my axe and cut one on the arm. As soon as that happened the players backed off and took up positions to surround us, but did not attack again.

Then we heard an evil laugh coming from a figure I had seen once before, "Kabel." I whispered under my breath, as if it was a curse. 

"Enjoying the nice weather, are we?" Kabel purred. 

"Yeah, we were out strolling, minding our own business and hoping to avoid any unpleasant encounters." I replied hoping to get my message across. "It would be a shame to waste such a beautiful day. So if you don't mind we'll be on our way." I faked a smile. There are many people that I don't like, but few people I actually hate. I only met this guy once before but it was enough for me to loath him and now, I was forced to confront him.

"Seems you and I have some unfinished business to take care of." Kabel sneered. "I haven't received your contribution to our fund. It would have been healthier for you to comply when we asked you the last time. So, I guess now, we have to find a way to compensate me." Kabel indicated with false politeness. Karla turned around and stood her back to mine, keeping an eye on the other players while I kept my eyes on Kabel. 

"I don't owe you anything. If you need money, all you have to do is to hunt the mobs out here." I said.

"True. But I prefer a more profitable approach. Players tend to have far more col than anything that spawns on this floor." Kabel said. "So you're going to hand all that you've got over to me, including your equipment, potions, and anything of value. Otherwise my boys will be obliged to take it by force."

"You're crazy" I shouted angrily "If you attack us your cursor will become orange. And if you kill someone it will stay that way permanently." 

"You have a point. But it doesn't apply if you attack someone who already has an orange cursor" Kabel said smugly as he pointed his mace in our direction. I glanced at Karla and my heart sank. She looked worried as she realized the gravity of the situation : our cursors had turned orange. We had hit a player without them touching us. Now they would be able to attack us or even kill us without ever losing their green status, and no one would be the wiser.

"So, what will it be? I haven't got all day you know." Kabel said. 

"I'm not giving you anything!" Karla said as she turned to face Kabel. I could feel the anger in her voice. "It's our money, we worked hard for it. We put ourselves at risk just so we could live a little in this world. This was lawfully gained from all kinds of creatures that were bent on destroying us. I'm not going to let some half-witted thief make off with any of it." Karla then whispered to me. "Charge him, and keep running."

I didn't need to be asked twice. I leaped forward and charged into Kabel, swinging my axe in an upward arc. He managed to block most of the blow, avoiding the damage, but it left him dazed and off-balance. I sprinted right by him without giving him a chance to retaliate. As I ran, I glanced back to see Karla taking advantage of Kabel state. She swung her katana downward and at an angle, cutting him below the knee. He lost his footing and fell flat on his back. I slowed my run to let Karla catch up before we continued our flight.

"After them!" Kabel shouted as he tried to get up. Kabel was out of the picture, but we still had his gang to deal with: four players that were not going to pull their punches and would probably kill us if the opportunity presented itself. 

"Karla, we've got to shake these guys off." I said 

"Run towards an ox, agro it, then lead it right to them." Karla said. It was worth a try. 

I headed towards the first Ox I could see. As soon as I got close it targeted me. I swiftly changed direction and headed towards Kabel's gang. Karla was keeping her distance, ready to intervene if necessary. I stopped halfway between the ox and the thugs. The ox charged me and I dodged it's attack at the last moment. I didn't stay to watch the chaos unfold. I turned and ran in Karla's direction. She matched my speed 

"Two of them are fighting the ox, but the others are still after us. And they're catching up." Karla explained. 

The plateau we were on was not very big. We rapidly reached the edge and had to stop, there was nowhere else to go. I turned around to face the attackers. They slowed their run and stopped a few meters away. One of them glanced over his shoulder. My heart sank; I could see the other two approaching. They must have quickly disposed of the ox. Also Kabel would have recovered by now and would be joining his group shortly. Any moment we would be both cornered and outnumbered by an enemy that was bent on our demise.

We had nowhere to run and were faced with the prospect of a battle that we would surely lose. Karla was at the ready, but I could see her shaking. Neither of us wanted to die. I had to find a solution; a way out of this situation. So I put my battle axe away and turned to Karla. 

"What are you doing?" She hissed in anger. 

"Forgive me." I said.

I grabbed her and jumped.


	14. Orange

Karla screamed as we fell from the edge of the cliff. It went straight down for three meters before changing to a steep slope of loose sand and rocks. For a brief moment after hitting the sand we slid gracefully as if we were skiing. Then our feet got caught in the rocks and we tumbled head over heels, down the slope.

I came to a stop by slamming onto a flat outcropping of rocks. I looked around quickly to see where Karla was. She had had the sense to stab her katana into the earth to prevent falling further. She laid there motionless.

"Karla. Karla!" I was whispering as loud as I could. "Karla, say something!"

"You idiot! I can't believe that you just did that ... " Karla hissed.

"Quickly, we've got to get to those rocks." I interrupted her. We crawled, as quickly as we could, to a rockier place on the cliff that was out of sight of the edge we'd just jumped from.

I put my finger to my lips. Karla restrained a curse, and listened intently. We could make out Kabel's voice, but the replies were unintelligible

"You let them get away, you idiots! ... I don't care; you shouldn't have let them escape. ... If they're dead we won't get anything." Kabel stopped talking and I guessed he and his men were looking over the edge of the cliff trying to see where we were and whether or not we were still alive. I didn't try to look as they might be able to spot us. "Let's get out of here." I heard Kabel say.

We waited a good ten minutes before doing anything. Karla looked at me still angry. I looked away as I took out two health potions; our health bars were both in the red. My hand was shaking uncontrollably as I handed Karla a potion.

"Are you ok?" Karla said as she took the potion.

I shook my head, tears were streaming from my eyes and now my whole body was shaking as the fear and tension, that I was holding back, surfaced unrestrained. Karla grabbed me and held me tight, as if to prevent me from exploding. We stayed that way for a long while. I felt safe in her arms and it helped me to slowly regain my composure.

Our little outcrop of rocks was in that odd transition space between the plateau and the valley, so we were not bothered by mobs spawning randomly and attacking us. Also it was unlikely that Kabel and his gang, or anyone else for that matter, would attempt to reach our location. I was near impossible to climb up from the valley floor and I don't think players would be crazy enough to try it from the top. This gave us time to asses our situation before we executed our next move. Once we left the outcrop we would not be able to return to it.

"So, what do you want to do?" Karla asked.

"I'm guessing you don't want to stay here for three days while we wait for our cursors to turn green." I commented.

"No, not really. Even if this rock seems fairly safe I would feel a lot better spending the night in town." Karla said.

"If we waltz into town during the day we'll get hassled by the NPCs not to mention the players if they spot our orange cursors. We'll have to sneak in at night." I replied. Karla nodded in agreement.

The prospect of going through the wilderness at night was not thrilling for either of us, but our options were few. We spoke little while we waited for darkness, partly out of fatigue but mostly because Karla still seemed a little angry.

As night fell, we carefully half-slid, half-climbed down to the valley floor. We carefully made our way to town trying to avoid any unpleasant encounters. But mobs are difficult to completely avoid. We disposed of those that did attack us as quietly as possible, making sure we weren't drawing any attention. At the edge of the town walls we couldn't see any players, only a few NPCs. The NPCs wouldn't prevent us from entering the town but it was best to avoid getting their attention.

"I'll slip in to town and search for a deserted alleyway. I'll signal you from the entrance if it's all clear." Karla suggested.

"Shouldn't we stay together?" I asked.

"No! We'll draw far more attention together than I will alone. My agility is higher than yours, which helps me when I skulk around. I'll signal you when I'm sure no one is in the vicinity." Karla commanded.

Karla opened her menu and equipped her cloak and pulled the hood over her head as far as it would go, then took off for the gate. I kept out of sight as best as I could, always keeping an eye on the gate. Karla pressed her body against the stone just outside the gate. She peered through the gate, then went inside. She quickly retreated back out, crouched down, and mashed her body against the side of the gate. Two players appeared at the gate, chatting as they left town. They looked like they were going out to take on some mobs, and luckily they weren't looking in Karla's direction.

Karla slowly got back up after the players left. I could tell she was hesitating. She took a deep breath and I saw her disappear into town. Time passed and Karla was nowhere to be seen.

"What's she doing?" I asked myself, frustrated that she had not shown herself.

*Bing* , As if to answer my question, I received a message.

_Go to the gate and turn left at the first side street._   
_Run!_

I quickly looked around then took off for the gate. I entered town and some NPCs turned to look at me. Also, I could also see some players further in town. No time to hang around. I found the side street and turned into it. I went about the length of one house before I saw some players coming out of a door a few meters away. Where was Karla? I stood there frozen in the street.

"That's it I'm caught. The players will rat me out" I thought to myself as I cringed.

Just then a hand grabbed me and pulled me to an alleyway, slamming me into the wall.

"Gotcha!"


	15. Wait Here

Karla was pinning me to the wall of the alleyway, with her finger to her lips and standing a little too close for comfort. I nodded to show that I understood to keep quiet. She turned her head to observe the street that she'd pulled me from, but didn't move away. I also turned to look just in time to see two players passing by. I'd have been spotted if Karla had not grabbed me. I breathed out slowly, after they dissapeared from view, and turned to Karla who was leaning in and sizing me up.

"You're not very stealthy, are you." she scorned, with a slight frown and a wry smile.

It was hard to think of a witty reply with her standing so close.

"Come!" she said as she pushed away. She led us to the end of the alley and knocked on one of the doors. The door opened, Karla went in and I followed.

"Now will you tell me what happened to you guys?" came the voice of the one that had opened the door. I turned and looked at him.

"Ory! It's good to see you." I said

"I'm here too!" Sharpclaw said. I saluted him and sat on one of the storage boxes. The boys sat on sacs of grain and Karla propped herself on one of the barrels.

"Is this place safe?" I asked.

"Pretty much! No one ever comes here. We use it as our secret hideout." Ory said.

"It's a storage room of one of the merchants. Apart from opening the alleyway door from the inside you can only get in here from the store. We found out about it when we didn't have enough money for a room. The store owner goes out in front of his shop every twenty minutes or so. If you're in the store when he's out, you can get in the storage room without him noticing you." Ory explained. He pointed to the sacs of grain. "Those bags were our bed for many nights. We used the blankets stored on the shelves so it's comfortable enough. Better than sleeping on the floor anyway." Karla's eyes were clouding slightly. "But we come here less often, we managed to make some money to pay for a bed for the next few weeks. You said you needed a place to hide, so you can use this space if you like." Ory offered.

"So what did happen to you guys? Why do you need to hide?" Sharpclaw asked. Karla smiled at Sharpclaw and we told them our story.

"We can't walk around with orange cursors; people will think we're criminals. We just want to lay low till we go back to green. We really appreciate your offer and your help." I concluded.

Ory and Sharpclaw smiled proudly as they felt they had done something good. Then Sharpclaw tugged on Ory's arm.

"You ask her." Ory told his brother.

"Ory." Sharpclaw pleaded. I couldn't figure what they were going on about or why they were both blushing slightly. But Karla caught on as she got up off her barrel and crouched in front of Sharpclaw.

"You want to ask me something, Sharpclaw." she said in a friendly way.

"You, ... you wanna be my friend?" Sharpclaw asked.

"Sure." Karla said and she opened her menu and sent him a friend request. She also sent one to Ory which he embarrassingly accepted.

The boys left us in the little storeroom after they offered to bring us some lunch and any information they got on Kabel. We looked around the practically square storeroom. Only the sacs of grain would work as a bed, and would only fit one person.

"This is the first time we've shared a room." I said.

"Don't get any weird ideas. It's not as if we have a choice." Karla snapped.

"Sorry. I wasn't implying anything." I replied. I sat on a box and fiddled with my menus for lack of something to do.

Karla sighed. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you like that. I'm glad I don't have to go through this alone."

"Me too, I didn't expect a character like Kabel to ever cross my path." I said.

"I meant more than that. I don't want to be alone ever again." Karla elaborated.

"I don't think it's possible anymore. With the boys on your friend list, it looks as though you have a fan club." I said with a smile and a hint of a tease.

"Oh stop it. For your information, it means I can now message them if we need anything." Karla explained.

We tried to make ourselves as comfortable as possible. Karla had taken the sacs as her bed for the next few days, partly because I was trying to be the gentleman, but mostly because I fell for her pleas, combined with her big sad eyes and pouty lips. I'll never figure out how girls manage to do that so well. I had slept on floors before; it wasn't the end of the world. The cramped space, the bare floor and even the fear of getting caught was nothing compared to the wait. We had nothing to do! Like a waiting room without magazines, info screens, tablets, or cell phones. But this wait would be a few days long. Even knowing that it was best that we stay where we were, it wasn't going to be easy.

Having done nothing all day, when the evening came I wasn't tired. Karla was just sitting on her makeshift bed fiddling with her hair. I could tell she was as frustrated as I was about staying in the little storeroom. Hiding out was losing it's charm, what little it had to begin with.

"I've got to get out of here for a bit." I exclaimed.

"I thought we were laying low? We have to make sure Kabel thinks we're already gone. You want to be spotted?" Karla said indignantly.

"We won't be spotted. Grab a blanket and follow me." I urged. Karla looked at me inquisitively, then shrugged her shoulders and rolled up a blanket.

I opened the door slightly and looked around; the alley was deserted. We moved to the back of the building where some crates were lying about. I climbed up on a crate that was against the wall and put my hands together to give Karla a leg up. She gazed up to the roof, then looked at me and sighed as if I was crazy. Then put one foot in my hands, nodded, and I pushed her up. She grabbed the edge of the roof then swung her leg over it and smoothly made it to the top. I threw our blankets up and, with Karla's help, managed to get to the roof, albeit with far less grace.

The roof was flat with a raised egde about 30 cm on all sides. I streched out my blanket and laid upon it looking straight up.

"Stargazing? Seriously? You took me up here to do some stargazing? I've already seen them and they don't change." Karla said out of disgust.

"C'mon, it's better than the storeroom ceiling." I encouraged. She huffed and laid down next to me on her own blanket.

"I wanted to come and look at them one last time." I sighed "We can't stay here anymore. Partly due to Kabel, but also because we're reaching our progression limit. I want to get stronger and I know I can't do it here without putting us in danger. But I don't want you to feel obliged to come with me. I don't know what we'll have to face; I want you to be safe."

"You jerk! We're a team; we work together. I don't feel obliged to go with you. I want to go with you." Her face flushed a little when she said it. "Anyway, who's going to keep an eye on you and make sure you stay out of trouble? You'd be lost without me." she said smugly.

I stared up at the sky.

"I would be."


	16. Moving Up

"All clear." Ory whispered, after checking out the town square. 

It's not as if this floor had a substantial player base; most players had gone to higher floors or were still in the town of beginnings. But is was still hard to get a moment when the teleporter in the town square was not occupied. Sharpclaw came back from spying on a few other alleys. 

"No one's coming." he stated with excitement. I wanted to keep them out of our troubles but Ory and Sharpclaw knew Urbus better than we did. 

"Time to go then." I said to Karla. Then I put my hand out to Ory and he shook it. 

"Thank you for your help guys. Hope this will all be over soon." I shook Shaprclaws hand. Karla hugged both the boys. 

"Stay together, and stay safe." she told them. We rushed to the teleporter and called out our destination : Elland

We had debated whether we should have confronted Kabel. But without sufficient resources to back us up we would not be able to control him. There was no police force in the game. I thought under the circumstances people would have maintained a certain civility and social responsibility. I guess I was wrong and until the situation changed we would have to watch our backs. But on this floor we were basically unknown and had a new chance of passing under the radar of those that desired us harm.

So here we were on floor 12. Eighteen floor bosses had been beaten at this point. The clearing group, as people had started calling them, was coordinating tactical scouting parties to find the floor boss then setting up a huge force to take it on. It was giving players hope to know that there were people that were actually pushing to clear the game. I envied such courage and determination and secretly wished that I would one day be of that caliber. But at this point our levels weren't nearly high enough

So, first things first, we decided to have a look around town and find a place to stay. One didn't actually need to have a room, but there was a sense of security and privacy when you had a room that you could go to that wasn't accessible to everyone. We found an inn that offered rooms with two beds. But Karla did not want to share a room. I guess after the time we spent in the storeroom, she wanted her own space.

The next few days we explored the area to orient ourselves. The town was very English or northern European in style. The town was surrounded by a stone wall with a moat and four gates complete with drawbridges and portcullises. In the center of town, in the highest area stood a square keep, three stories high with it's own dry moat and a single gate. The keep dwarfed the other buildings around it which were only one or two stories high, with thatched roofs and plaster walls. Many houses were also made to use the city walls as part of their construction. Everything was built very tightly around itself. The streets were crowded both with NPCs and farm animals, some in pens and some roaming free: pigs, chickens, ducks, the occasional cow, and a fair share of cats and dogs.

The wilderness around the town was also very English in style, changing from tidy walled farmlands to grazing pastures. Beyond that the wilderness varied between forest clumps and windswept moors, eventually leading to the entrance to the floor's dungeon. We learned that a field boss was roaming the moors: a huge hound that could be heard howling some evenings all the way to town. At night the wilderness filled with undead farmers, wolves, and dire rats in some fields. "Best not be going out at night." came the warning from the NPCs.

Alternately during the day the fields had many "farmable" resources. For those that had the proper skills they could get a rich variety of grains and vegetables from the farmlands, meats, wool and hides, from the grazing pastures. The town was home to a few players who were trying their hand at these gathering skills. There were even quests to prepare country fairs and to help setup for market day. We hadn't given much thought to other skills ourselves but if we ever desired to play farmer, this would be the place to do it.

But even on a farm based floor there was plenty of stuff to hunt, and we did that for a couple of days. We would head out as far as necessary to get creatures that were just challenging enough for our level. The floor had the simplest creature progression to date. We were never surprised by overly powerful creatures, you could almost count your steps as you left town to know what level the mobs would be at. Though it was easier to control what you would encounter and where, It had a risk of seeming too easy. The mobs could kill you if you were careless.

The whole place had an extreme sense of stability. We enjoyed it the first couple of days, the hunting was easy and the stress was at it's lowest. We hunted quickly and efficiently, we barely touched our potion supplies, and we hardly needed breaks between mobs. But the novelty soon wore off and Karla seemed weary of the whole thing.

"You up for a little hunting?" I proposed. Karla nodded without enthusiasm. 

"You ok? We can do something else if you'd like?" I asked.

"No. Let's go." she said as she snapped out of it and headed to the edge of the town.

I didn't press her with questions and simply followed her, but something was definitely bothering her. "A little exercise should straighten her out." I hoped to myself. I wasn't wrong but I wasn't completely right either.

"Karla let's take on the field mushroom over there." I pointed to a blue and white, round topped, 2 meter tall mushroom. Karla was looking elsewhere and not paying attention. 

"Karla?" I said a little louder. 

"What? Did you say something?" she asked. I widened my eyes in slight annoyance. 

"Mushroom? Fight? Get xp? Shall we?" I pestered. 

"Yeah. Ok. Sorry I wasn't paying attention. You start, and I'll come in right after." she bumbled. I frowned as she finished, I knew then exactly how my teachers must have felt on a daily basis. I took out my battle axe, charged a sword skill, and rushed it.

I sliced right below the head and it took a lot of damage. 

"We can get through this one in about fours hits." I told Karla. I swung a second time and yelled "Switch!". 

Nothing happened. The mushroom shot out a stream of spores which weakened my attacks and slowed me down. I was still recovering from the sword skill when it slammed it's head on me, consuming a quarter of my health. 

"Karla! Help please!" I yelled. 

"Sorry!" Karla gasped. She quickly stabbed it with her katana but without a sword skill activated. It suffered minor damage. I saw her hesitate. 

"Karla, concentrate!" I yelled again as I slammed my axe with a downward swing, which stunned the mushroom. Karla, now fully in the fight, released a dual slash attack that finished with a powerful stab. The mushroom froze, then exploded into shards of blue-green light.

"What's up with you today?" I gasped. She looked at me embarrassingly and sighed. 

"I'm sorry, I'm just not into it, I guess." she replied sheepishly. 

"Are you ill?" I asked even if in-game it would be very hard to actually be sick unless it was part of a quest or an effect from an attack. 

"No, of course not. But would you mind if I didn't hunt today?" she asked. 

"Uh, ok we can do something else, there are in-town quests ..." I started before she interrupted me, 

"No, you go ahead and hunt, I'll take a break and just spend a little time alone. I'm too distracted to be of use anyway" She said. 

"Oh. Alright then. I'll just do a little more and head back later. Message me if you need anything." I said trying not to show my disappointment. She waved and headed back to town.

I waited till she left then also headed back to town. There was no point in doing anymore hunting if Karla wasn't there; it just didn't feel right. Once in town I simply exchanged the drops I had received and then wandered through town. I could have done some quests but doing them alone is not as fun. When evening fell I headed back to the inn by myself. I sat at a table and ordered a light meal. Karla never showed up. As I finished my meal and was drinking the tea I had ordered, I looked a long time at the second cup that always comes with the order.

The cup remained empty.


	17. Other Guy

I got up earlier than I usually do, partly due to going to bed early but also because I wasn't sleeping soundly. I hadn't seen Karla all evening and that left me a little bitter, for some reason. I knocked on her door but there was no response. I went down to the common room and I saw her at the inn door. She was talking to someone outside, but I couldn't see who it was. I waited till she was finished before going over and talking to her.

"Who's that?" I asked groggily. 

"Oh, some guy I met who offered to help me train faster. He's a couple of levels above us and he said he'd show me some of his moves." Karla said. 

None of this was registering well in my brain, but on the other hand I wasn't thinking clearly. Also Karla seemed to be in a good mood; it was worth keeping it that way. 

"So what's the plan then?" I asked. 

"We're to meet him on the west drawbridge. I know you like to have something to eat when you get up, so I told him we'd be there in about twenty minutes." She explained. 

"Are you having anything?" I inquired 

"I'm not hungry right now. I'll get something later. See you in twenty minutes." Karla said as she left the inn.

I sat at one of the tables and ordered something light: I only had twenty minutes, after all. It was strange, yesterday she was all distracted, then she meets a guy who's offering his time, and the next morning she's all cheery. She also seemed to have lost her appetite. I started on my breakfast and thought about it for a moment. 

"What can change someone's mood so radically and at the same time make them lose their appetite?" I wondered. 

My eyes suddenly widened as my mind connected the dots. I never finished my breakfast and it took me far less than twenty minutes to get out of there.

I got to the drawbridge first. Taking advantage of the fact that they weren't there yet, I found a spot to wait for them that made me look as though I knew the place. I watched carefully to see who would approach the drawbridge. A guy approximately my age arrived, looked around, then looked towards the town, he was obviously waiting for someone. I pretended to ignore him and slowly installed my armor as if I was choosing carefully which pieces I would use. I couldn't tell if I looked cool and in control or just ridiculous.

Karla arrived a few minutes later and the guy immediately went to greet her with the biggest smile I'd ever seen. He grabbed Karla's hand, bowed, and said "Ah Karla you're looking radiant and ready for action, I like it." 

"I hope I didn't keep you waiting?" Karla said. 

"Not at all, not at all, you're worth the wait." the guy said. 

I rolled my eyes, "Enough of this. He's laying it on pretty thick." I thought to myself. I went over to the two of them and cleared my throat. 

"Oh, Hi Wolf." Karla said slightly surprised to see me. "Wolf this is Ricky he's going to give us a few pointers and help us with our hunts. Ricky this is Wolf, the guy that I party with." Karla said as she introduced us. 

I nodded my head in acknowledgment, Ricky just smiled from the corner of his mouth.

"Shall we go?" Karla said. 

"Ok, I'll invite you both to a party" I said as I started fiddling with my menus. But before I could complete my actions I received a party request from Ricky. 

"Karla and I are already in a party." Ricky said as he smirked. 

I dismissed my menu and accepted Ricky's request. I gave Karla a quizzical look hopping to clear what was going on, she simply shrugged her shoulders. I huffed a little, and with a wave of my hand I let Ricky lead the way.

We walked towards the wilderness and on the edge of the farmlands we came across chicken hunter foxes, four of them. 

"You go ahead and I'll come in when necessary." Ricky said. 

I rolled my eyes and initiated the attack. Nothing hard here, they only had a bite attack, but you had to avoid getting bitten as it was difficult to make them let go. I simply did brute attacks to deliver the most damage and dispose of each one quickly. Karla activated different sword skills, she was obviously trying to show them off. Ricky barely did anything; he avoided the fight as much as possible. It's a good thing the foxes were not a great threat because I ended taking the brunt of the hits.

We took on a few other mobs. Each time Ricky stayed back, only swinging his sword when the mobs got too close. He claimed he was evaluating our abilities and had to let us do the work. He was all praises and compliments to Karla: "Oh, you really have a knack." or "I can feel your abilities; together we'll make them shine." So as to not lose face, he tried to appear useful by occasionally throwing in comments like :"Raise your elbow higher." or "Follow through." or "Feel the sword skill activate." Nothing he said was very useful, he sounded more like a tennis instructor than a sword master.

"Enough!" I screamed after hearing one of Ricky's totally useless comments. "Nothing you've said up to now is of any use to us. This isn't training, it's a waste of time." I said to Ricky. 

His expression changed, he looked like I had hurt his feelings, but his eyes showed defiance. 

"I can tell that you don't understand what I'm getting at. Some people let me help them and they follow my lead. The rest are just obstacles to push aside." Ricky said with forced politeness. 

"Oh, I understand alright, but no one pushes me anywhere." I replied brusquely.

"Wolf! What are you doing? Ricky's here to help us. We should at least let him try." Karla pleaded as she pulled me aside to talk more privately. 

"Something doesn't feel right. He makes us fight monsters but doesn't help in any way and tells us things we already know. Everything he says and all his energies are concentrated on you. Don't you feel it's a little weird?" I argued. 

"Aren't you overreacting a little? I think you're jealous." she teased. I was too annoyed to be teased.

I looked at Karla and for a moment I could have let it go, calmed myself and buried my feelings. But beyond her stood Ricky with his arms crossed and that look of defiance still in his eyes. 

"I'm done here. I can't deal with this right now." I said. I opened my menu and left the party. 

"Wolf, don't be like that." Karla pleaded. 

"Let me know when you're done with 'Ricky'." I said. I turned and headed back to town.

I grumbled to myself all the way back to town. I even absentmindedly charged my battle axe with a sword skill and I let it rip on the nearest donkey. It was still chewing hay when it exploded into shards of blue-green light. I was taking my frustration out on whatever was in my path. 

"Well, that was pointless." I sighed. 

A part of me secretly wished the donkey would have been a certain someone though : "Ricky the ass."

Sounded just about right.


	18. Donkey

Calling someone a donkey may be funny but doesn't solve anything. In fact I didn't know if I was the one being an "ass". I could have let Ricky do his thing and minded my own business, but there was something about him I didn't trust. I can't say that I thought Karla was in danger or anything; putting all his annoyances aside, he didn't look like a player killer. I just couldn't shake off the feeling of being threatened whilst not able to put my finger on what exactly he was threatening.

I just couldn't imagine Karla being influenced in some way by this guy. She couldn't possibly have been taken in by his jet black wavy hair, or the fact that he was tall and of a good build. It couldn't be his piercing eyes or his confident expression. No way could he influence her by his crooked smile but straight teeth. "Who am I trying to kid? The guy looks like a movie star." I thought to myself. Maybe Karla did have a thing for this guy. I certainly wasn't going to wait to get the news from an information broker. I knew they wouldn't be out in the fields for very long, so I headed for the west gate so that I could see them as they entered town.

As predicted, Ricky and Karla crossed the drawbridge at the west gate. I stood a little to the side, so as not to be too conspicuous. 

"Well I have some things to do so I won't keep you any longer. Thank you for your help." Karla said to Ricky. 

"The pleasure was all mine, my dear." Ricky said as he took Karla's hands and pulled her close. "We must continue this, I have so much more to show you. You are my most brilliant student." he brushed his right hand on her cheek as he said this. "You must meet me tonight, there are techniques that cannot be demonstrated out in the wilderness. You can also dress lighter, the weapon and armor won't be necessary." Ricky said as he released her hands. Karla simply nodded.

Ricky turned away and headed into town. The broad smile that was present throughout his conversations with Karla, vanished. It was replaced with a smirk of satisfaction, which sent a shiver down my spine. Karla was going through her inventory, probably assessing the drops she got, when I came over. 

"Hi!" I said simply. She looked up from her menus, 

"Oh! Hi Wolf. I didn't see you there." she said, a little surprised, then she frowned at me. "That wasn't cool of you to ditch us like that. It's not like you to do that, or is this a new part of your personality that you haven't shown me yet?" she asked.

"It's Ricky. He gets on my nerves." Karla crossed her arms as I said this, but let me continue. "He's all over you with compliments and praises. He even looks at you differently than when he talks to me; it's freaky. He's trying to push me aside to have you all for himself. And you're letting him do that." At these words Karla's lips tightened up and she looked away. "I didn't want to say what I thought of him; you seemed happy this morning and I didn't want to break your mood. I thought it might actually be a good opportunity. But you let this guy get his way with you. I don't know why you're letting this guy in. What's going on between you two?"

"Nothing's going on between us! What the hell are you thinking?" Karla said upset by having been called out. "He offered to help, and I found it really nice of him to do so. Is there anything wrong with getting a little extra training, while getting another point of view? We planned a day of training and that's what he gave me, nothing more nothing less. I think he's trying really hard to observe what I do and to give me pointers. He told me I knew a lot of stuff already and only needed some adjustments, it's very encouraging. He offered to do some more training tonight and ... well ... I'm taking him up on that offer." she said the last part a little shyly.

I made a sour face in disgust. "You barely know the guy, and you're going to spend the evening with him?" I blurted out. Karla raised her eyebrows 

"I didn't realize you were jealous of Ricky." Karla said. 

"I'm ... I'm not ... well maybe. I don't know what to think." I admitted as my arms fell limp at my side. 

Karla looked at me, then looked away, breathed deeply then looked back. 

"Listen, if Ricky makes good on his promises, we'll be better for it. If not then we've only wasted a day or two. We can go hunting just the two of us tomorrow. Are you OK with that?" Karla inquired. 

I pursed my lips and nodded. 

"I've ... um ... I've got stuff to do, so I'll see you later" Karla said as she left.

That evening I sat on the drawbridge with my feet dangling over the edge, reflecting on what happened today. I was no further ahead. I trusted Karla, literally with my life, and I think she felt the same. We had an understanding to keep each other safe and to try to get better. But we never said anything about what we would do with the rest of our time. It wasn't fair of me to make a scene over another guy.

So why couldn't I let it go? Was it because I didn't trust Karla? I was struggling with the thought, when it dawned on me: The problem wasn't Karla, it was Ricky. He's the one I didn't trust. Any other guy would probably not have bothered me, but I felt this guy was going to take advantage of Karla in some way. I didn't know what he could possibly do to her in town. But, I certainly wasn't going to find out sitting on this bridge. I got up and headed into town, keeping an eye on everything around me. Some people would think it a childish thing to do, but it's all I could come up with.

I would spy on them!


	19. I Spy

Spying on someone seemed straightforward enough. As a kid, I sometimes played at spying on friends to then surprise them. Or while playing hide-and-seek, trying to see where the seeker was. Or even on mom to take a sweet bun when she wasn't looking. In every case, you knew where your target was. But the town was a big place, and they had left me no clue as to where they would be. I would have to be creative in my search if I didn't want to come up empty handed.

I did have one thing I could use: the tracking skill. I hadn't leveled it up much, it wasn't a skill I thought I would need. If a quest required seeking out a NPC or a creature then the tracking skill would be a useful skill to have. But tracking other players was much more difficult, you'd be up against their hiding skill. At my skill level I wouldn't be able to track Ricky's movement. But for Karla it was a different story because she was on my friend list. In this case the hiding skill is ignored, it's akin to getting a huge bonus. I guess it was a feature of the game to help friends stick together, and prevent them from getting separated.

But to use the tracking skill I had to at least spot my target or know where they had been recently. The trail from the drawbridge had already gone cold. I had to start my search somewhere else, so I headed back to the inn. The common room was empty, which didn't surprise me much. I went up to the rooms and in front of Karla's door I hesitated. I took a deep breath and knocked on the door. No one answered. I breathed out slowly. I was sort of glad she wasn't there, I probably would have made a fool of myself had she opened the door. But her not being there meant I had to seek out a new starting point.

"Where would be the best place to meet someone in this English styled town?" I asked myself. And as is often the case the clue to the answer is often in the question: "An English style pub, of course." I acclaimed snapping my fingers. 

I headed to the market area where I had spotted a place that looked like a pub. Sure enough, there it was: the "Pub of the Wild Boar". They were probably inside already but I had to make sure. As I didn't want to barge in and have everyone eyes on me, I waited until a few players were about to enter the pub and I tail-gated them.

The place was warm and inviting, it looked like it was hundreds of years old, decked out in dark wood, leather and brass accents. It wasn't worn down or falling apart, but well used, as if it had see thousands of patrons over the years. It continued to be welcoming as the place was packed with people, both players and NPCs. This was definitely the favorite hangout of the crafting gang. Players that looked like farmers, woodcutters, artisans, and hunters were all gathered here. It was lively with conversation and it made you feel like grabbing a chair and spending some time among friends.

It was a shame I wasn't there for an evening of fun; tonight I had other plans. I quickly looked around the place, scanning the bar and the tables, hoping that no one was looking at me. Luck was on my side, I spotted Karla sitting at a table against the wall. She was talking to someone I couldn't see, who I assumed was Ricky, and wasn't looking in my direction. That was all the information I needed: I knew where they were. I quickly left the pub and looked for a place I could keep an eye on the pub door. Then I waited.

The pub was catering to a lot of people. I imagined it could be a good business for a player that wanted to settle down. I didn't know if it was a business a player could run, but the game offered such a variety of shop-like businesses players could have, it was surely a possibility. It would be a logical extension for an information broker, you would meet so many people. And by the looks of this pub, a business like this could be quite successful.

From my spot outside, I could see all the people that crossed the pub's threshold. But it was nerve-wracking: every time the door opened I jumped a little. I expected to see Karla and Ricky stroll out each time. I saw all types of groups going in or out of the pub: parties of players, some of the crafting types getting together, solo players looking for someway to pass the time, and a few couples who had managed to find a little more than just xp and col in this game.

It took about an hour before my wait paid off. Karla and Ricky came out of the pub and seemed to be disagreeing on something, but I couldn't tell about what. Finally, they headed down the street. I waited till they turned a corner and headed in their direction. I activated my tracking skill which permitted me to see Karla's tracks even if she was out of sight, as I had guessed I would have been at a loss following Ricky, I could only barely make out his tracks. As long as they didn't suspect anything I would be able to follow them without being seen.

They went down one street then another, turned left then turned right, they seemed to be going round in circles. It was strange, as we headed deeper into this maze it got quieter, I could barely hear the noise from the main streets and no sound was coming from the buildings. With less ambient noise, it meant that any noise I made might be heard. I suddenly heard Karla's voice getting closer. I ducked back into the alley I'd just come from and tried to stay perfectly still. 

"What is it?" Karla asked Ricky. 

"I told you to wait." Ricky replied.

"Don't move Wolf, don't move Wolf..." I kept repeating in my head.

"Come on Ricky, I haven't got all night." Karla pressed. 

I heard them leave but I didn't move. If it wasn't for Karla's impatience I would have been spotted. I stayed in my spot for another ten seconds before deciding to peek around the corner: no one in sight. I took a deep breath and cautiously continued my tracking. I stayed as far as the tracking skill permitted me without losing them. I turned a corner and came to a dead end with a high fence and a door. The tracks showed they had gone through the door, so I approached it and listened as intently as I could. It became clear that this is where Ricky wanted to take Karla as I heard nothing to indicate they were going anywhere. I could hear some bits of their conversation, mostly from Karla, Ricky seemed to be keeping his voice as low as possible, but I couldn't see what they were doing.

I heard Karla complain to Ricky about how he was acting. I smiled, at least I wasn't the only one who got annoyed at Ricky. My smile faded as I heard Karla's voice get more annoyed. I resisted the urge to intervene, Karla was very capable of handling herself and others. It was not my place to interfere in her affairs. Or was it?

Karla's voice suddenly got a lot louder, "Watch where you put your hands! ... What does this have to do with training? ... No I don't want to! ... This is not what I expected. ... Stop please. ... That's it I'm leaving ... Let go of me!"

Karla's voice had changed from annoyance to fear, and I could feel it. I couldn't stand by any longer. I equipped my battle axe, took a deep breath and walked into the small courtyard they were in. Ricky stopped moving and looked at me, surprised. I leaned my battle axe on my shoulder. 

"You heard her." I said,

"Now let her go."


	20. Flip Side

I stood in front of the door with my battle axe on my shoulder. I was facing Ricky and Karla who were at the opposite end of the courtyard. Ricky was holding Karla by the wrist and Karla was struggling to free herself. She didn't speak, she didn't need to, I could see both confusion and desperation in her eyes. Ricky on the other hand was both annoyed at my arrival and frustrated by Karla's lack of cooperation. 

"I'm thinking you might be deaf, sir, so I'll repeat myself: Let ... her ... go." I said pressing heavily on my last words.

"I thought I heard someone following us." Ricky said "So what are you going to do little man? Here to save your girlfriend? She doesn't even care about you. A few sugary words and I had her eating out of my hand. A little more time and she'd have forgotten all about you." Ricky laughed evilly as if he'd gone mad. 

He turned to Karla "It's your fault he's here, this would have gone a lot smoother if you hadn't led him here." with his free hand, he swung at her and hit her square in the face.

Karla fell back and Ricky let go of her arm. This was too much for me, I lunged at him with a downward swing of my axe. Ricky was surprisingly fast, and he managed to dodge my attack. A second later I saw a long sword materialize to his side as if it had always been there. He had managed to equip it as he dodged my attack. He unsheathed the sword and smirked. 

"So, wimp, you want to take me on?" he jeered. I could feel my blood boiling as I squeezed the handle of my battle axe. 

But I hesitated, I didn't know exactly how this would go down. You couldn't kill someone in town. In fact no one could win a fight, unless they dueled. Each hit would only make a temporary mark and throw you back a bit. But each hit did come with an inescapable feeling of pain, albeit a temporary one, but pain none the less. Inflict enough pain on someone and they will do anything to make it stop. My weapon did a great deal of damage each time it hit, but it's hit rate was low. Ricky's sword on the other hand was much faster, if he managed to get enough hits in I could be incapacitated long enough to be unable to help Karla.

I made a careful swing with the battle axe, I had to maintain control of my weapon. Ricky dodged it and tried to slash me on the side. I blocked it with the handle of the battle axe. I pushed his sword away making him take a step back. He made feint to the right then spun around and attacked on the left. I tried to dodge it but he did manage to strike my armour. I swung my axe and it connected with his stomach leaving a large gash. As I had thought, Ricky managed to recover from the pain faster than I could land another hit.

He retaliated with a solid stab in the chest. The pain made me lose my concentration for a second. Then another hit came to my leg, then to my arms one in the face, another in the chest, the sensation was maddening. I swung my battle axe wildly, trying to hit Ricky but he was just too fast. Most of my swings missed, and even when I managed to block one of his attacks, the next would connect. Over and over he hammered hits on me. In a last effort I rolled away and protected myself with my battle axe. I was down on my knees and was having a hard time getting up. 

"So, giving up are you?" Ricky laughed "I guess I get the prize after all. Karla is mine. And there's nothing you can do about it. You're no match for me alone." Ricky laughed again before letting out a yelp that cut his amusement short. 

"He's not alone." a voice behind him said, as the tip of a blade protruded from his chest. Karla had recovered her senses, equipped her katana and back stabbed Ricky. She managed a four hit attack before taking a step back.

Ricky groaned then spun around to face her "So that's how it's going to be, is it?" he said as he unleashed an attack on Karla. She managed to block his blows and took another step back to get a better stance. 

"I'm not finished with you!" I growled at Ricky. I had recovered and was ready to unleash a new set of blows. Annoyingly, I never got the chance, Ricky turned and ran towards the edge of the courtyard and, with the help of some crates, made it to the top of the fence.

"I know when my time is up. Sadly, I will not stay for the final act. I take my leave, and I will NOT see you later." He made an exaggerated bow and took off via the rooftops, laughing as he left. 

"Bastard!" I yelled, then dropped to my hands and knees "You bastard." I said to the ground. 

Even as he left he'd managed to frustrate me. I leaned back on my feet and sighed. I turned to see how Karla was doing. Her katana was on the ground and if I didn't know any better she looked like she was going to be sick. I pounced in her direction and caught her just as her knees were giving way. She was shaking like a leaf. 

"He ... he ... tried ... tried to ... " she sobbed as tears freely flowed from her eyes. 

She grasped my shirt at the arms, her teeth clenched in anger. She managed a gasp of breath before letting out an ear piercing scream: a wail of emotions combining anger, pain, frustration and loss. There was no point in trying to stop her, I just let her scream. It was too much to take and all she could do was vent it. If we were not inside a game, she would have screamed till her voice gave out, as such, she stopped simply out of futility. We stayed on the ground for a long time; she clung to me and I held her as she continued to sob softly. I couldn't begin to understand how she felt, it's not something I think I would ever be able to truly grasp. I only knew that she would need someone to root her in this reality; someone to make sense of it; someone to bring her comfort; someone to trust.

She gently pushed me away and sat on the ground, wiping her eyes. She stared away from me, taking the time to calm herself as best as she could. 

"I'm sorry." she said "I'm sorry about all this. I ... " she had difficulty maintaining her composure. 

"We'll talk later. Right now you need to get some rest." I cut in. 

I got up and took a quick look around then offered my hand to Karla. She nodded, took my hand, and slowly got up. She squeezed my hand gently before letting go to pick up her katana. We retraced our steps back through the maze and the sounds of the streets could be heard again, of what little noise there was. Few people were on the streets, most had turned in for the night. We walked in silence. Karla was hugging her arms across her chest, and stared at the ground the entire time. I escorted her, I wasn't going to let her make her way to the inn on her own. I'm sure if the roles had been reversed, I would have appreciated the gesture.

I held the door for Karla as we got to the inn. She walked in without raising her eyes. We walked up the stairs and stopped in front of her room. She looked up at me as if she wanted to say something, hesitating. 

"Get some sleep." I said "There will be time for talking tomorrow. We can figure it out then." I gently squeezed her shoulder. "I'll be in the next room if you need anything. Don't hesitate to ask, OK?" I said as I looked into her tired eyes. She looked down and nodded. I made to leave, but Karla grabbed my arm so I stopped. She looked at me and said:

"Stay with me?"


	21. Two Beds

I was a bit taken aback by the request. I thought she would have wanted some time alone.

"Are you sure? I don't want to be a bother." I said.

Karla screwed her face up and looked at me with pleading eyes. I should learn to just shut up some times.

"Ok, I'll stay." I responded. She walked in and stopped in front of her bed.

"You can have the bed if you want. I can sleep on the floor." Karla said.

"What? No. I don't want you sleeping on the floor. You take the bed, I'll figure something out." I said.

"I'm the one that asked you to stay. I can't oblige you to sleep on the floor." Karla responded.

"Maybe you don't have to. Stay put, I'll be back in five minutes." I said smiling broadly.

Karla tried to object but I was already out of the door. Down the stairs I went and straight to the reception desk of the inn.

"Hello, what can I do for you?" the NPC behind the counter asked. A window popped up in front of me. I made my selection and paid for the transaction. I rushed back up the stairs to Karla's room and knocked on her door. Karla opened it,

"Come, follow me." I commanded.

I went a couple of rooms down the corridor and opened the door, and let Karla enter first. She walked in to the room and looked around. It was larger than the inn rooms we were used to.

"See? Two beds! Now neither of us has to sleep on the floor. We can share in comfort." I said satisfied with myself. Karla smiled as she sat on one of the beds. I sat on the other bed facing her.

I opened my menus and proceeded to remove my armor and put away my battle axe. Karla started to do the same. She fumble with her menus, still shaken from the previous events. She dropped her katana while trying to store it in her inventory. I picked it up and gave it to her. She grabbed it rather roughly, and huffed a little. I pretended to ignore it.

"Get some rest. I'll do the same." I suggested and laid in bed on my back staring at the ceiling. I heard Karla do the same thing.

"Wolf?" Karla said

-"Hmm?" I acknowledged.

-" Talk to me?"

-"About what?"

-"I doesn't matter, just talk about stuff."

-"Could you be a little more specific. Is there anything you want me to talk about."

-"You."

-"Me?"

-"Yeah. What's with the blond hair? You dye it or something?"

-"Oh that. Um, it's a long story."

-"I don't mean to pry, you can talk about something else if you prefer."

-"No, I don't mind. It's my natural hair."

-"Really? How? The game wasn't released anywhere else."

-"Hmm, I think I've told this story a thousand times."

"How does someone get blond hair and blue eyes in a country where most people have dark hair and brown eyes? I credit my grandfather for that. He's originally from England but was working for an American company who was trying to set up production in Japan. So when a position in Tokyo opened, so he jumped at the opportunity. He liked Japan and decided to settle there permanently. He moved his wife and five year old daughter to come and live with him.."

"His daughter, my mom, adapted to the move as any child would, and as much as any child can. But she was different than her classmates in school, and got teased a lot. She had slightly wavy blond hair, very pale skin and bright blue eyes. Some were fascinated by her, some were jealous, and most saw her as an outsider. That influenced some of her choices, one of which was to study abroad."

"She met a young man during her last year of studies. They went out for a while and things were progressing smoothly. But the relationship broke down when she mentioned about going back to Japan. He decided he would not follow her and broke the relationship off shortly after their graduation. He cut off all communications and took off to the states."

"My mom headed back to Japan with a broken heart and a little something her ex-boyfriend had left her. She was pregnant with me. My mom once said to me that I was a gift she almost missed. Now that I think about it, mom must have struggled with what to do. Grandfather told me, not so long ago, that it had been a difficult time for mom. I'm glad she let nature take it's course."

"So here I am. Born and raised in Japan, immersed in the culture and having lived here all my life, with a body that originates halfway around the world, complete with the blond hair and blue eyes. It's strangely a piece of my reality that followed me into this game. My original avatar had black hair. It was a shock to see my real face in the mirror on the first day."

"So that's it." I concluded. I turned my head toward Karla to see what she thought about my story. She appeared to have fallen asleep. I couldn't tell if the story had been comforting or boring. In any case it had the desired effect. I laid on my back staring at the ceiling and whispered "I hope you'll tell me your story when you're ready."

* * *

I woke up to a poke on the cheek. I opened my eyes slowly. Karla was leaning over me.

"You awake?" she asked

"I am now. What's up?" I said as I shook off the sleepiness and stretched a little.

"Nothing. I've been awake for an hour, and kind of wanted some breakfast. I was hoping you would join me?" she stated and asked at the same time. Breakfast sounded good.

We headed down to the inn's common room, sat ourselves down at a table and ordered a meal of eggs, sausage, toast, and of course a cup of tea.

"I could really use a coffee right now" Karla said.

I chuckled at this. I guess I wasn't the only one that missed the infamous morning beverage. Maybe a player would eventually figure out a coffee like recipe, whoever did that would instantly become very rich.

Karla looked away, "Wolf? Thank you for staying with me last night." I looked up from my tea and looked down again.

"No problem. I hope I didn't bore you with my origins story." I chuckled nervously.

Karla turned towards me "I appreciate your openness. I need someone right now that can root me in reality, and you tend to do that to me. Thank you. I just hope I won't be a burden for you." Karla confessed

"I know I promised to go hunting with you today, but I really don't feel up to it. You can go if you like, I'll just hang around here and wait for you." Karla said apologetically.

"To tell you the truth, I'd rather stay in town with you than go hunting alone. We could wander through town a little, you know, walk around and look for something to do." I suggested.

"Like what?" she asked.

"Crafting!".


	22. Crafting

"Crafting? Seriously? I didn't pack a pair of scissors and some glue. And the last time I checked the shops they were clean out out of wax crayons and finger paints." Karla said sarcastically. 

I pursed my lips and raised my eyebrows at her. 

"It's not at all like that, and you know it." I huffed. 

She stared at me for a minute with a stunned look "You're serious aren't you?" she asked. 

"What better way to get our minds off our troubles than to occupy them with something else? C'mon, let's go take a walk and see what shows up." I said as I stood up and offered my hand to her. 

She slapped it away gently and got up. We left the inn and headed towards the market area. NPCs had their shops in that area and most players set up shop nearby. I hadn't really taken in the sights of this town and what it had to offer. I was surprised and pleased to see how many crafting options there were in such a small area: food, clothes, furniture, jewelry, armour, weapons, books, to name a few.

We browsed the shops looking at the wares offered and what was being crafted. Karla spent a long time looking at an older gent working leather into a vest. 

"Hello miss, can I help you with something?" the man said. 

Karla jumped a little "You're not a NPC? Here I was expecting a popup." she said. 

The man laughed jovially. "That's a good one." he said, he then looked down at his clothes. "But I can understand why you might make the mistake. I don't look like most players." he laughed again.

"You do any crafting?" he asked her. Karla shook her head. 

"No? You interested in leather work?" he leaned closer "Say 'yes'. " he whispered loudly. 

"uh, yes?" she replied. 

"Oh good! I can help you get going faster than the NPCs can. That is of course if you can do a little something for me. You see I'm a little short of leather today. You could gather some hides and I could help you make them into leather for me. That way you get the skill up and I renew my supplies. I won't charge you for using my equipment, which is more than what you'd get from a NPC." he said.

"Ok, I'll take you up on your offer. I'll come and see you when I get the hides." Karla said, and left the player's shop. 

"So while I'm crafting some leather. What are you going to do? I'm assuming you're going to craft something different than me." she asked. 

"Yeah. I was thinking of doing some cooking." I said. Karla turned her head towards me. 

"Really? You're full of surprises. You don't strike me as the chef type." she teased.

"It's just practical. I found we were getting a fair number of cook-able drops. It could be a nice change to make our own food." I said as we headed to the edge of town.

"I've got to get those hides before I can do anything else. The cows will probably supply me with everything I need. I guess we'll be hunting after all today. You will be coming with me right?" Karla asked. 

"Of course, I probably need to gather some wheat. It's the most basic food ingredient. It's all in the same area. Also I'll take any meat the cows drop." I explained. 

So we headed to the farm areas just out of town to hunt the least threatening creatures we've ever encountered : cows.

Killing cows in a farmers field is way too easy; it's just tediously long. Karla set her goal at forty hides, which meant at least eighty cows to fight as the cows only dropped a hide half the time. It dropped meat only a quarter of the time. We had to wait often for the cows to re-spawn in the area we were in. I got Karla to help me gather the wheat form the neighboring field while we would wait for the cows to re-spawn. We switched from cows to wheat all morning.

A few other creatures were found here but they were hardly a threat. We did have a rabbit-like creature hop near by. 

"Get the rabbit!" I called excitedly to Karla as she was closer to it than I was. 

It was fast, but Karla was faster. A swift swing with that katana of hers and it was all over: the rabbit had no chance. 

"Nice. Did you get something?" I asked.

"I got a rabbit skin. So what?" Karla said. 

I smiled shrewdly "When you're done crafting the regular hides, and you've fulfilled your commitment to the leather worker, show him the rabbit skin. It might be worth your while." I said.

It took us a couple of hours to get what we needed. "I'm done, I've got forty two hides. What about you?" Karla said satisfied with her haul. 

"I just need some more wheat. You can go do the leather. We'll meet up in the market place when you're done." I explained. Karla nodded and headed back. 

I gathered another dozen bunches of wheat before I also headed back to the market area. Now I just had to learn how to cook the stuff.

Back at the market place, I picked a bakery shop and went in. 

"Welcome to my bakery. How may I help you." Typical greeting for a NPC. 

I wasn't going to get personal help like Karla was. No matter, I'd probably get just as much crafting done it was just going to cost me more. 

"I'd like to learn to cook." I told the shop keeper. 

"Very well, would you like the tutorial?" the shop keeper asked as a pop-up window appeared offering me a quest. I accepted it and the shop keeper explained what I needed to do.

The quest gave me access to the back room where the cooking area was. It looked like a restaurant's kitchen with six cooking stations. Four players were already using the facilities. They looked up from their activities when I came in but otherwise ignored me. I set myself in front of a cooking station with my starting recipe. I was supposed to make five breads for the shop keeper. The quest came with the salt and yeast necessary, but I had to supply the wheat.

Once I had the required fives loaves, I went back to the shop keeper to turn in the quest. I had managed to burn thirteen breads before getting the five I needed. I hoped Karla was getting better luck. I got xp from the quest and a recipe to grill meat. 

"You will acquire more advanced cooking skills as you progress. In the mean time I have a few basic recipes for sale." the shopkeeper said as a trade window appeared. 

I bought a simple cookie recipe recipe and the ingredients I was missing to make it. Then went back to the cooking station and made what I could with my remaining materials.

Karla was waiting for me as I came out of the bakery. 

"There you are! I just finished a few minutes ago." Karla exclaimed. 

"How did it go?" I asked joyfully. 

"Great. And I'll tell you all about it over the dinner you've prepared Chef." Karla teased. 

I sighed and rolled my eyes. 

"I saw a nice little patch of grass outside the town wall with a large tree. We can have a picnic there." she said as she led me away from the market.

The spot was nice and quiet and was still within the city's safe zone. I took out what I had prepared and a few extras I bought as I gave a run down of my cooking experience. 

"... no I didn't make the wine, just the bread and the meat. Oh and don't ask what's for desert." I said. 

Karla looked at me inquisitively. 

"I burnt the cookies." I announced in mock embarrassment. 

She laughed , then quickly caught herself and looked at me. I smiled and let her laugh at it a little more.

"So tell me, how was the crafting? Did it go well? Did you have fun?" I prompted. 

"It was tedious. It took me a good ten ruined hides before I managed to make my first piece of leather. I only managed to do a dozen all in all and he claimed them as payment in our deal." Karla rolled her eyes as she said this. "But I did like you said and showed him the rabbit skin after he'd agreed I'd done my part of the deal." she said smiling smugly "You should have seen his expression change when I mentioned that I would keep it and craft it later. He was ready to offer me anything I wanted. So I asked him to teach me to craft something useful in exchange for the skin. He gave me a design and some leather to work. And I successfully crafted a belt purse." She turned her hip to show me a basic but well crafted pouch attached to her belt. "He said I could go see him anytime I wanted to craft something. He probably hopes I bring him more rabbit skins." Karla laughed.

After our meal we sat against the tree letting time pass by. 

Karla nudged me with her shoulder "I had a good time today. I hate to say it, but you were bang on. I needed to keep busy. I feel refreshed and ready to take on what this game throws at me." she admitted. 

We both seemed content to just sit there. And that's probably what we have done if we hadn't been startle by a gruff voice.

"Found you!"


	23. Test

I jumped to my feet and turned around to face who had just called out. I saw a guy in full armour, with a mace on his belt and a shield on his back, standing a few meters away from us. 

"What do you want?" I shouted at him. Karla had pressed herself against the tree to avoid being seen. 

"I'm looking for a few good men, who know how to fight." replied the guy. 

"What for?" I asked. 

"I'll tell you only if you show me what you can do." he said.

He went through his menu. *bing* a popup window appeared: "Ironfist has requested a duel." 

"I don't want to duel anyone. The last guy that wanted to duel me turned out to be bad news." I said as I refused the request. An awkward silence fell between us. This was not going as he had planned and I was in no mood to play games. I heard the sound of armor and weapons being equipped.

"I'll duel you!" Karla said stepping from behind the tree, decked out in her armour and her katana hanging from her belt. 

I turned to Karla to ask what she was doing but she gave me a look that told me to just shut up. I raised my hands at chest level and submitted to her wishes stepping back to give her some room. She stood tall, a hand on the hilt of her katana and her eyes fixated on Ironfist. He raised an eyebrow at this challenge and eyed her equipment, assessing her strength.

"Very well then." Ironfist said and sent a duel request to Karla. 

The fifteen second timer started counting down as Karla accepted the duel. Ironfist grabbed his mace and shield and fidgeted to adjust them. He positioned his shield just below eye level and held his mace ready to strike. Karla moved her left foot back, and unsheathed her katana with deliberate steadiness and precision. She held it in front of her, pointed at her opponent, her eyes never leaving him. He gulped, unsure now of his choice of combatant.

At zero, Ironfist leaped at Karla attempting to slam her down with his mace. Karla dodged the attack and it only hit air. He swung his shield arm to try to knock her to the ground. Missing once again as Karla stepped away. Karla retaliated with a double slash attack directed at his chest. He managed to get his shield back in position in time to block her attack. They both stepped back for a moment, eyeing each other like cats. I could see the weapons glow as the sword skills activated.

The attacks came simultaneously: swings, stabs and blocks in rapid succession. It was hard to follow and hard to tell who had the upper hand. The two separated momentarily and red shards of light could be seen on both opponents. Karla had sustained a hit to the right thigh and left shoulder. Ironfist had a cross shaped gash in the face and a stab on the chest. That's all I got to see in that brief moment before they clashed again.

I was captivated by the battle and impressed that Karla was giving this guy a hard time. If Karla maintained her focus she might just win it. She would just have to avoid his strength attacks to do so. Ironfist for his part wasn't letting himself get beaten. He was effective with the shield and could deliver a powerful blow with that mace of his. They seemed evenly matched even considering that Ironfist's equipment placed him at least two levels above hers.

Without warning, Ironfist managed a brutal attack that Karla wasn't quick enough to dodge. It hit her squarely in the chest and sent her sliding through the dust on her back. Ironfist seized the opportunity and pounced through the air, slamming his mace down hard. The action stopped and for a moment nothing happened. A blow like that could definitely put an end to a duel. I heard someone shout "Resign!". But surprisingly it wasn't Karla who was resigning.

The dust cleared and I understood: Ironfist's attack, as powerful as it had been, had hit dirt. At the last minute Karla had rolled away from the blow and managed to thrust her katana upwards. Ironfist received it squarely in the chest. It was too much for him and he gave up. 

"Karla, you won! That was amazing!" I said as I ran to her. I offered my hand and helped her up. "Remind me never to duel you." I said mockingly as I handed her a health potion.

I turned to Ironfist and reluctantly offered him a health potion also. 

"Thanks, but it's not necessary: I've go my own. But I do appreciate the gesture." he said as he reached into a belt pouch. Karla sheathed her katana in one graceful movement and dusted herself off. 

"Now. I hope I've demonstrated our ability to fight. And shown you that some of the 'women' are just as capable as the 'men' you're looking for. I think you owe us an explanation for all this, who you are, and what it is that you want." Karla pressed Ironfist. At this Ironfist stood up and bowed.

"For starters, please accept my apology for not explaining my intentions and I meant no disrespect when I said 'a few good men'. But I have no regrets; that was one of the best duels I've had since the game started." he said. 

The compliment sounded genuine and I felt that Karla appreciated it. 

"My name is Ironfist. I'm a member of the Brutal Knights Guild. I've been tasked to select capable warriors, like yourselves, and invite them to come to a meeting to discuss a proposal. I can't give you more details about it right now, but you are the type of people we're looking for. The meeting will be held in about two hours in one of the rooms of the keep. I hope to see you there." Ironfist concluded. He saluted us and left.

"That was a bit odd and mysterious. I can't tell what it is he wants exactly but I am curious. What do you think?" I asked Karla. 

"I think he ruined our picnic." she said, standing with her hands on her hips looking at the spot where it had been. 

"Not for me. I enjoyed the after dinner entertainment. You sure put on a good show." I joked. 

"Oh stop it." Karla said, brushing me off. I wasn't entirely joking and by the colour of Karla's cheeks, she accepted my concealed compliment.

"Ok. Let's find out what this Ironfist fellow wants. I don't think he has any evil motives or anything. It's not like we've agreed to anything yet. I said I was ready and I meant it. He might offer us something we want anyway." Karla said. 

"I guess it's decided then." I agreed. "We have at least an hour before the meeting, is there anything you'd like to do in the meantime?" I asked. 

"Let's go for a walk." she suggested. 

"To go where?" I asked. She turned to me, rolled her eyes, and with slight frustration said

"Just walk with me."


	24. Meeting

Setting up a meeting in the keep meant that even if you didn't know your way around town, it would be impossible to miss. It stood out from the rest of the town in stark contrast to the houses and shops, which were mostly of plaster and thatched roofs. The keep was made of stone and reflected the construction of the wall that surrounded the town. Arrow slits could be seen along it's walls and battlements circling it's top. The medieval feel of it was conveyed effectively as we crossed it's drawbridge and passed under a large reinforced portcullis.

The inside was just as convincing. We walked along a corridor dimly lit with torches hanging from it's stone walls and ended at a spiral staircase. Light from outside peered into the stairway through arrow slits. We made our way to the top and entered a large room with a wooden ceiling and floor. A fire was burning in the large fireplace set in the corner of the room and the whole room was lit with candles.

Players were slowly filing in. Some were obviously used to being together evident by the way they grouped themselves. They were either part of a guild or simply tended to party together. I knew no one there, and neither did Karla for that matter. We hadn't met many people since the game started and generally kept to ourselves. This was the first time we were with such a large crowd, I felt somewhat uncomfortable. I was glad Karla was with me, even if she too seemed nervous.

"What do you suppose Ironfist wants with all these people? It's like a mini army" Karla whispered to me as she looked at the people around us. I shrugged my shoulders and shook my head.

"I don't know. We'll know soon enough : Ironfist just got here." I whispered back.

Karla turned to the stairway and saw Ironfist and and a few members of his guild entering the room. They made their way to the middle, Ironfist grabbed a chair and stood up on it.

"Good evening gentlemen; my lady." he nodded to Karla making her slightly uncomfortable. Karla was in fact the only girl at this meeting. "I'm glad you all could come. The Brutal Knights, my guild, has been trying to make a name for itself. We're working to get stronger and more capable of defeating what this game throws at us. We have a goal: We want to take part in the clearing group and defeat a floor boss." Iron fist announced. The crowd seemed to get uneasy and chatter spread throughout the room.

"Settle down people, settle down. I'm not suggesting you all join my guild and we head ten floors up to take on a boss. On the other hand anyone wanting to join is welcome as long as we have similar goals. But we'll never reach our goals if we don't prepare ourselves. The boss on this floor was defeated but there is one boss that was ignored because it was possible to bypass it. This floor still has an unchallenged field boss: Soul Biter, the Hound. My guild has set it's sights on defeating it and I want you to help us do it." Ironfist explained.

Most players in the room were visibly not amused. People started arguing, and by his reaction, Ironfist had probably not expected so much resistance.

"You're crazy, I'm not putting my life on the line for this." one person cried out.

"It's not worth the effort. A complete waste of time." yelled another. Others were arguing amongst themselves.

"I ... please ... that's not ... can you ..." Ironfist was quickly losing control of his audience.

"You don't have to come!" said a booming voice over the arguing crowd that managed to catch everyone's attention. "You don't have to come." he repeated and turned towards Ironfist so that he may continue.

"Those who do not wish to partake in this endeavor are free to leave. We're not forcing anyone. But we cannot do this alone, you are all capable warriors and we are asking for your help. That said, the choice is up to you." Ironfist said.

For a brief moment nothing happened, then one player shook his head "Sorry I can't risk it." he said and headed for the stairs.

It had a cascade effect and the crowd in the room thinned rapidly. As players left, others weighed their options and eventually left also. I moved to make my way to the stairs but Karla grabbed my arm and stopped me. I screwed my face up but made no objections.

Only twelve of us remained, including Ironfist and his guild members. He eyed each of the remaining players looking for the confirmation that we weren't going to leave. "I seem to have in front of me the best and most willing players. Don't feel bad for the others, I expected many would not want to participate. This is not going to be a walk in the park. I only wanted those that were truly determined to fight and push the limits of what they're capable of. Now, let's get down to business." Ironfist said as he proceeded to explain his plan and strategy.  
 

* * *

 Back at our room at the inn, I sat on my bed with my back turned to Karla. If I was going to share the room with Karla I would at least have the courtesy to not look at her while she changed out of her armour and into her sleepwear. Karla was chit-chatting about the meeting and how it went. I wasn't really paying attention to what she was saying.

"What is it Wolf? You've been awfully quiet since we left the keep." Karla inquired.

"What? Oh yeah. I'm sorry." I said startled at Karla's question. I turned to face Karla. She was standing next to her bed running her fingers through her hair waiting for me to elaborate. I screwed my face up "I'm ...well ... I'm worried about tomorrow. It's not a risk I want to take." I said.

"You're having second thoughts? Oh come on, we can do this! As far as what Ironfist said, it's not that high a level and with the twelve of us it won't stand a chance." Karla said.

"I'm not so sure; we know very little about it. A boss has changing attack patterns, we can't predict what it will do. The twelve of us make a formidable defense but an attack at the wrong moment could get one of us killed." I said.

"Geez, I can dodge its attacks and it'll be no match for my katana." Karla said.

"Our lives will be on the line! When did you become so bold?" I said as my voice raised a little.

Karla brushed me off with a "tsk", "Don't be such a wimp." she said. It was meant as a tease but came out with to much honesty that I was taken aback and didn't retort.

"Fine! We'll go." I said angrily.

"You don't sound convinced." Karla asked looking at me with raised eyebrows.

I took a deep breath and sighed "Yeah, I'm sure." I fell into bed on my back. I held up my right hand in a fist and motioned it as if I was chopping, then let it drop to my side. Karla got into her bed and turned her head in my direction.

"Wolf, Thank you, for agreeing to come with me. I wouldn't have been able to go alone." Karla said.

I smiled at Karla, then turned my head and stared at the ceiling and whispered too softly for Karla to hear.

"Just make sure I don't come back alone."


	25. Hellhound

Soul biter was a hellhound bent on destroying anyone that got in it's way. Vicious, bold, fast, and strong, all appropriate qualifiers for this black creature of the underworld. It was surrounded by a blighting aura which increased the already gloomy atmosphere of the moors. Day or night it prowled, unlike zombies and skeletons that only came out at night. To add insult to injury, it would spawn minions to fight with it. Vicious Dogs, three at a time, would spring from Soul Biter's back, slamming those that didn't get out of the way fast enough. This was not a creature to be trifled with.

Every fiber of my mind told me this was a bad idea. I could hear my mom, my teachers, my grandparents, even Karla, in my mind telling me to stay out of trouble, to stay safe. Nothing in this game was worth putting our lives on the line. Many players had given up trying to fight this game and had accepted their fate and were trying to make the most of it. So why couldn't we just do that?

Of course I knew the answer: we were prisoners, trapped in a virtual world, whose life was managed by one's ability to protect the green bar floating above our heads. Whose fate was determined by the collective ability of the players to fight and destroy a hundred monsters, each more powerful than the next, simply to unlock our ability to exit the game alive.

So there we were, facing a formidable foe, with the hope that it would make us stronger, give us some advantage, possibly unlock a new skill. Twelve players trying to coordinate their attack, to get the upper hand in a battle, that we had chosen to initiate. Ironfist strategy could be summed up in two words: brute force. Six of us in pairs would attack the Vicious Dogs, while the remaining half dozen players, including Ironfist, would fight the hound head on, dealing as much damage as possible.

Karla and I were part of the pairs assigned to handle the Vicious dogs. We were certainly capable of fighting them but we took hits and had to regularly regenerate our health, and we had a limited number of potions with us. It was a frustrating task, each time we killed the three of them, another set appeared, repeating a cycle that would only end if we defeated Soul Biter.

The main group weren't doing that well either. Their damage output wasn't sufficient to get the upper hand. Soul Biter had a natural healing ability which compensated, to a large extent, the damage it received. At this rate we would be here all day and night. And with the damage it was doing on the team, they would also run out of healing items before defeating it.

But the logic of it and the safety considerations didn't seem to register. I was fixated on the task at hand and I felt obliged to complete it. I was driven by the tought that I had to show that I was capable of defeating this creature, to show that I had courage and strength to do it. "I'm going to show you what I'm made of." had become my battle cry. It's not as if the hound would care, so who was I trying to convince?

"It's not working. We can't keep this up forever." Karla complained as another set of Vicious Dogs spawned. 

"I can take this dog, just like before. I won't back down." I said as I swung my battle axe and brought it down to stun it. Karla switched in and handed it a couple of stab attacks before it managed to get a bite in, taking yet again some of Karla's health. 

"We're in danger Wolf. None of this will matter if we're dead. What are you trying to prove?" Karla yelled.

My mind raced wildly, I only had a moment to reflect. Karla's words cleared the fog in my mind. "You're trying to prove yourself to her. None of this will matter if she doesn't come back with you." I thought to myself. Last night's words were affecting me, controlling me. Was I really willing to die to show that I wasn't a wimp? I was letting my emotions cloud my judgment. Now was not the time to let my pride take control. I blocked the next attack from the Vicious Dog with my battle axe. 

"Ironfist! We can't beat it like this! We have to retreat!" I yelled at the group fighting the hound. Two players reacted to my cry and fell to more defensive positions. 

"No! We need to continue to hit it!" Ironfist said as he hit the hound hard. 

"Don't be foolish, we can't keep this up. We have to retreat before someone gets seriously hurt." I replied. 

"No! No! No! Nothing will prevent me from getting my prize." Ironfist yelled in anger.

These words surprised Thunder: the biggest members of the Brutal Knights. He looked at Ironfist then quickly looked at me with worry in his face. 

"Grab Ironfist and run to the farmhouse on the edge of the moor. I'll warn the others." I shouted to him. 

Without anymore prompting, he put his greatsword on his back, and wrapped both arms around Ironfist's waist. He jumped up just before Soul Biter closed it's jaw on the spot where they had been standing. He landed on the hound's nose and launched himself away from danger. Slinging Ironfist on his shoulder he made a break for the farmhouse.

"Time to go people. We'll seek shelter in the farmhouse." I shouted. Two men were still fighting one of the Vicious Dogs. "Leave it. Make a run for it." I shouted. 

They looked at each other then slammed their shields into the dog which caused it to stumble. That gave us the time we needed to get a head start as we ran for our lives. Leading the retreat was Thunder, this giant of a man with Ironfist over his shoulder who was yelling "Put me down you fool!". Followed by Karla, most of the team with me and two shield bearers bringing up the rear. Soul Biter and the Vicious Dog were catching up quickly.

"We won't make it at this rate!" one of the shield bearers shouted. We had to come up with something to slow it down. 

"Slam the hound with your shields at the same time, I'll deal with the dog!" I shouted. I cut in front of the Vicious Dog to attract it's attention, then I attacked it with a stumbling blow. It didn't cause a lot of damage but it did cause it to trip, giving us precious seconds in our run for the farmhouse.

The shield bearers were not as lucky, though they had managed to block Soul Biter and cause him to stop, they were knocked on their backs by the blow. They were now exposed to Soul Biter's attacks in a bad position to defend themselves. I took off in their direction, maybe I could help the nearest one safety at least. I was sure I would not be able to save both.

Thankfully I didn't have to. Three other player of our group had turned around and each in turn delivered one blow to the hound then retreated. It gave the downed players just enough time to get up and take off running. At this I shifted my energies to my running and took off for the farmhouse. Myself and the other five players burst through the small door of the farmhouse just as Soul Biter came crashing into it. A purple hexagon appeared near the doorway.

"Immortal object"


	26. Farmhouse

Soul Biter couldn't make it through the farmhouse door, but the Vicious Dog could. It followed me in as I fell through the door. It took a bite of my leg as I lay on top of two of our group that had burst in just before me. My health bar fell to the red. I saw the glow of many sword skills and heard the combined attack of the players. The dog burst like a blue-green firework. Soul Biter tried to bite players near the door but was so constrained that, unless someone was square in the doorway, there was little he could do. 

"Heads up, the dogs are spawning again." a player near the window said.

"Close the door, we have to keep them out" another player said. 

Soul Biter moved it's head from the doorway as the dogs ran towards it. I got up, rushed to the door, and slammed it shut just as the one of the dogs leap at the entrance. With my body against the door, I felt the blow as the dog smashed against it.

Two players came to help me hold the door shut, while another set the bar in place. The dogs barked and growled on the other side of the door, scrapping their claws on it. Soul Biter was circling the farmhouse to find us if we left the building. We took health potions to recover as best we could. Our weapons at the ready in case the dogs managed to break down the door.

Then, a deafening howl came from outside. Instinctively we put our hands to our ears. The scraping, the growling, and even the barking stopped. For a moment there was silence. Then we heard the sound of the dogs de-spawning right behind the door. 

"It's leaving." one of the players said. Soul Biter had given up. The players relaxed their stance, let their weapons droop, and let out a sigh of relief.

"Why? Why did you force me to abandon the fight? What were you thinking?" Ironfist yelled at Thunder. Thunder had nothing to say, he just stood there being scolded by Ironfist, with clenched teeth, and his hands in tight fists. It was odd that the smaller man had such a hold on the larger one. Thunder didn't deserve this, I'm the one who had called out to him during the fight. 

"He probably saved your life." I said

Ironfist attention now turned to me. "You! You're the one that called it off! It wasn't your place to give that order." Ironfist was fuming. He pointed his mace at me in a menacing way as he spoke. "We could have finished it, we were so close. Now it's back to square one. I could have had it, but because of you: nothing. I'll make you pay for that." Ironfist said. 

"I'd like to see you try." I said tauntingly. We both had our weapons up now and the other players were giving us room. I felt threatened and Ironfist was angry, our fuses were short and anything could set them off.

"That's enough." Karla shouted. Her distinctive voice made everyone pay attention. "It's not safe here. If you want to argue do it somewhere where we won't attract unwanted visitors. Back to town, the lot of you! I don't want to see you again until you've calmed down. You've got to stop acting like children." Karla scolded. She turned her attention to Ironfist "You! I want to know what's going on, but not here, and not now. I'm not in the mood." Karla growled with clenched teeth.

Ironfist was evidently not happy, but offered no argument. He left the farmhouse and harrumphed his guild mates as he passed them. Thunder turned to look at Karla and gave her a nod of respect before joining the rest of the gang. The other players also filed out and headed back to town. Karla and I followed a short way behind as to avoid any unwanted comments but retaining the protection of the group if need be. We split from the group once we got to town.

"Do all boys have such short tempers, so as to pick fights just like that?" Karla huffed, as we walked. 

"Boys? Most of them are at least twenty years old." I replied. 

"They certainly didn't act like it." she added. 

"Yeah I guess that wasn't very mature. I don't know what it is, but Ironfist is frustrated. It's as if he wants something and can't get it, and it's bothering him." I said. Karla put her hand on my upper arm to slow me down. 

"He's not the only one that's bothered by something, wouldn't you say Wolf?" Karla questioned. I turned to face Karla. She stared into my eyes as if answers could be found there. 

"What ... what do you mean?" I asked. 

"You stretched yourself thinner than usual, I though you would have backed down sooner. I was seriously scared when I called to you. What was pushing you so hard?" Karla pressed. I turned away, my arms hung loosely on either side, but my hands were in fists.

"Childish stupidity. You said something that bothered me. You called me a wimp last night and I wanted to show you that I wasn't. I ignored the danger, and put us both in jeopardy." I admitted. "You snapped me out of it during the battle by calling me. I'm so sorry. I've let everything get to me recently. It's not fair to you, you deserve better treatment than that. Can you forgive me?" I pleaded.

Karla pushed her fist in my back, which made me stand straight and pay attention "You're not a wimp. You probably saved people's lives back there. And you stood up against Ironfist's stubbornness. It takes courage to do what you did." Karla said clenching her teeth. She opened her fingers and placed her hand on my back. Her tone softening she continued "I'm the one who should be apologizing. I didn't mean what I said. Next time I say something stupid, promise you'll let me know, alright?"

I leaned my head back and took a deep breath, it felt like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. Honesty has a way of doing that to a person. I felt flattered, proud and happy by what Karla said. I had proved nothing, but only because I didn't need to in the first place. I turned around to face Karla and grabbed her hand in mine. I smiled and said,

"I promise."


	27. Explanation

"I want to talk to Ironfist," I told Karla. She looked at me suspiciously. 

"You're not going to pick a fight with him are you?" she said.. 

"No ... No! Of course not." I coughed, It was something that had crossed my mind, which of course would not get me very far. "I just want to understand what he wants exactly. I feel he's being stubborn and secretive about it," I said.

"I'll go with you," Karla said. 

I looked at her inquisitively, I had half expected her to not get involved. On the other hand I couldn't think of a good reason why not. 

"Don't look at me like that, I want to know what's going on also. It's like you said, he didn't exactly tell us the entire reason why he wanted to fight the hound. Anyways, who else is going to keep you two from killing each other, hmm?." she teased. 

"Yes mother," I joked as I took off in a quick jog to avoid the wrath of the now growling Karla.

We headed for the keep. If Ironfist wanted to be found, it would be the best place for him. I also felt he sort of fancied it as a base of operations for his guild. It could only ever be temporary though, you couldn't buy the keep, as you could a house or a studio, it would remain public space. This was a good thing for us, we wouldn't have to ask to talk to Ironfist.

We headed straight to the second floor of the keep and into the room where we had agreed to follow Ironfist in his quest to take on a boss. It seemed larger than before and far less inviting. There was no fire in the fireplace and only a couple of candles were lit. A table and a couple of chairs were the only significant furnishings. Only two other people were in the room, who stopped their conversation as soon a we appeared.

"Oh it's you. Have you come to gloat over my failure? To laugh at me and my foolishness?" Ironfist said in a disgusted tone. "Or maybe you feel I owe you something. Well I have very little money to offer, you simply won't get much from me," he said as he shrugged his shoulders and showed his empty hands. Thunder was looking away but I could feel Ironfist's tone was embarassing him.

"What's done is done, we can't go back. You chose a path and we chose to follow you," Karla said. "I wanted this even more than my buddy here. But even then, I'm the one that asked him to retreat. It wasn't just a selfish request, I saw the state everyone was in. We couldn't keep it up, there would have been casualties." her face just lightly betraying her feelings of fear during the battle. "We all made it out alive, that's what matters most! Some parties are not so lucky. So spare me the self pity."

"So what do you want?" Ironfist asked. 

"I want to know why," I said as I secretly thanked Karla for setting the tone for me. "You told us a great setup story to get us to fight with you. But there's more to it than that, isn't there? You placed yourself on the front line, and that was not negotiable. During the fight you reluctantly backed off only if you absolutely needed to take a healing potion. Then you were back in as quickly as possible. It's as if you might miss something. What were you looking for?" I pried.

"That's none of your business," Ironfist said dismissing the question as irrelevant. 

"Tell them," Thunder spoke, which surprised the three of us. "Tell them. They deserve that much," Thunder said as he glared at his guild leader. Ironfist looked away evidently uncomfortable with being pressured by Thunder. Ironfist huffed loudly and with his hand, pinched the spot between his eyes.

"The last hit bonus. I wanted to be one to get the last hit bonus. That's what all this was for," Ironfist said as he shrugged his shoulders. "Don't look so surprised. I wanted to move my guild up in power and a rare drop can create a one or two level advantage. No one seemed to be going after the field boss on this floor. It seemed like a good opportunity. I just didn't want to have to broadcast to everyone that I wanted the last hit item," he explained.

"It's probably irrelevant now. We would need more people to fight it. I don't know if the players we had would even come back. Even my guild members are unsure now. Except for Thunder here, of course," Ironfist said as he gave a slight smile to Thunder, who nodded approvingly. He crossed his arms, "Is there anything else you want from me?" he grumbled.

"No, that's it. Take care of yourselves," I said, then turned to Karla. She nodded and we headed for the staircase. A strong hand on my shoulder caused me to stop.

"Wait," Thunder said as he opened his menu and sent me a friend request. "So that we may meet again," he explained. As we left we overheard Thunder. 

"You did good boss," he said. 

"Oh. Shut up!" Ironfist responded. We left the room, giggling to ourselves.

"So is that really it? Are you satisfied with what Ironfist said?" Karla asked me as we stepped out of the keep. I looked back at the keep, looking for an answer to a question I didn't know yet. "Wolf. Are we done here or not?" Karla pressed, her impatience was showing through. I turned away from the keep, nodded and smiled at Karla.

"Good. After all that I think I could do with a decent meal and an early night," Karla said. 

"I thought I was the one was obsessed with eating, I guess I'm not alone," I teased. Karla blushed out of embarrassment. 

"I like good food as much as the next person. Why should I deprive myself of what's offered? It's not as if I could get fat in this game anyway," she explained

I took a step back and while pinching my chin, I gave Karla's body a blatant 'once over'. I hemmed and hawed in a mock disapproving tone. Karla's face was now beet red. "You make a comment on my weight and I'll break both of your legs," she growled. She stared at me with piercing eyes, then turned her nose up and walked right by me. I smiled, maybe a little too evilly, and said:

"I wouldn't dream of it."


	28. Answers

We fought and lost against Soul Biter. This wasn't a floor boss, in a dungeon, designed to test the players ability to move up a level. This was a field boss, a creature that should have been beatable at our level. But we were unable to defeat it. We had to retreat for our own safety. Even with the size of our group, we hardly had any effect on it. We were missing a clue, some piece of information, to give us an upper hand.

"Are you just going to stare at your breakfast, or do you plan on eating it?" Karla asked. I looked at my plate of untouched food, I couldn't recall how it even got there. Karla snapped her fingers a few centimeters from my nose. "Hey come out of it. You've been spaced out since we got up this morning. If you wanted to sleep in, you should have just told me," Karla said raising her eyebrows to check that I wasn't spacing out again.

I shook my head and started eating my breakfast. "Sorry about that. I was thinking about that hellhound again," I appologized. Karla cocked her head to the side, waiting for me to elaborate. "I can't help but feel we missed an important detail. Something that would have given us an upper hand during the battle. It's bugging me. I'll probably never figure it out," I sighed.

Karla frowned "I won't go out with someone that's not concentrated on the mobs were going to face. If you want to do something else today, I'm fine with that. But if we're going hunting, I need you to stay focused," she scolded. 

"Yes Ma'am," I responded. 

"I'm serious," she pleaded. 

I held my hands up in front of me, "Ok, ok. I'm just toying with you. I promise you'll have my undivided attention," I said.

"Good. Now finish up, I want to get going," Karla pressed. 

"What's the rush? It's not as if the mobs are going anywhere?" I said with my mouth full. 

"We're out of potions, and I need to get my equipment repaired. You wouldn't want my armor to fall off in the middle of battle would you?" Karla said. I raised my eyebrows and smiled. "Don't answer that!" Karla snapped at me. I feigned innocence and finished my meal in an exaggerated fashion.

With our hunger satiated, our equipment repaired, and a decent set of healing potions in our pouches, we headed back out into the wilderness, in an attempt to gain a bit of experience and some col. We passed the farm area and killed a few cows for the hides and the meat, we could always sell them if we decided not to do any crafting. We passed some forested areas but decided not to go in preferring to stay out in the open. I suggested we could go punch some trees, but Karla was not amused and decided to ignore me.

A few other players were either gathering resources or doing some hunting of their own close to town. But few players would venture this far out. We were also quite close to the moors, which, with Soul Biter still alive, was not the safest place to be. As long as we stayed off the moors, we should manage to avoid attracting Soul Biter's attention.

There were many other things to worry about out here: Goblins, wolves, giant mushrooms and snakes. A nice variety of creatures to hone our skills on and plunder for money and resources. At night we would have had to deal with undead and other nocturnal creatures. But even during the day, with only the two of us, we had to be careful to check our health bars and not trigger more than one mod at a time.

"We should rest. We've been at this for an hour," Karla advised. We looked around for a good spot that would not trigger the mobs. 

"How about the abandoned farmhouse. It's not far and mobs don't spawn there," I suggested. 

"Alright, but lets head to the road first, we're too close to the moor here," Karla pointed out.

We walked out of the grassy area we were in, then took the road that leads to the moors. 

"Karla, why do I get the feeling that it's not a coincidence that you wanted to come hunting near that old farmhouse?" I asked. 

She blushed a little, "I know you're still looking for answers and I thought that you might see something you didn't notice last time. So, no, it's not a coincidence," Karla admitted.

At the farmhouse, I took a good look around it's outside and the room inside, then we sat outside just under the small window, with our backs against the wall. 

"I can't see any strategic advantage the farmhouse would have brought us during the battle. Come to think of it, the hound's spawn point offers even less, it's basically in open terrain," I said

"Maybe the terrain has nothing to do with it," Karla began "The farmhouse gave us a place that it couldn't reach, but it's not as if we could fight it from there. I wouldn't call that a strategic advantage. We weren't strong enough. That's all there is to it," she concluded. She rested her chin on her knees. I could see the bitterness in her eyes. I leaned my head back against the wall.

"I don't buy it. I think we could have beaten the hound," I said. "The extra dogs that kept spawning prevented us from ganging up on it. If we wouldn't have been so busy fighting them, we would have been wearing down the hound's health much faster. That would have been an advantage," I pointed out. I could see myself taking a swing at the hound.

"It wasn't like we could just ignore the dogs," Karla said. "If we'd have turned our back on them they would have ripped us to shreds. It didn't even matter where we placed ourselves, those dogs covered every angle that the hound couldn't handle by itself. We never had an opening to even get one shot in. There were moments I could have flanked it, but those stupid dogs got in the way. One dog would have been fine, but three ... that just made it impossible," Karla pouted.

"That's it! You're brilliant, you know that?" I exclaimed. I turned towards Karla and put my hand on her shoulder and smiled in satisfaction. "We only have to keep one of them busy." I said. Karla gave me a surprised and confused look. "When we were retreating from Soul biter, we only got troubled by one dog. Nothing spawned in all that time," I blurted.

"So? Well go on. What are you thinking?" Karla pressed me to finish my train of thought.

"The dogs will re-spawn only if all three are killed. If we keep one alive we won't have to handle the other two. It would leave openings and free up players to attack the hound. We would cause far more damage, and faster," I said. I put my hand to my mouth and whispered

"We could beat it."


	29. Insight

"Wait. What? You're not seriously thinking of taking on the hound again are you?" Karla said indignantly. I simply looked at her with a slightly embarrassed grin and nodded. "Weren't you the one that was the most reluctant last time? And now, suddenly, you're up for the challenge? Just because you came up with a new idea?" she continued.

"But you said you hoped that I could find answers by coming to the abandoned farmhouse?" I asked.

"Answers yes, but I didn't expect to re-challenge it. I hoped for answers that would give us a reason as to why we didn't beat it. Something we could blame our failure on. Something to brush off the encounter and permit us to move on to other things. Not one that would put us back at risk again," Karla said.

"Wow. I didn't think you would get cold feet. You seemed pretty keen the first time," I said as I puffed in resignation.

"I think we'd be safe enough with a second go at it, but I won't push it. I must admit, I don't want to ask you to do something you're not sure of. Just forget I suggested anything," I said. I smiled trying to conceal my disappointment.

I stood up and dusted myself off out of habit, and offered my hand to help Karla up. She refused it.

"I'm not being cowardly you know," Karla grumbled as she got up.

"I didn't say you were. Where's this coming from?" I asked.

"You insinuated it. You said I was having cold feet. I'm just not sure if I want to take that kind of risk again. At least not yet," she said.

"Ok, ok. I didn't mean it that way," I said.

"You shouldn't say things you don't mean," she complained as we made our way down the road.

It took a while for Karla's mood to improve, but eventually things got back to normal. Nothing like a few successful encounters to let off a little steam. So by the time we headed back we weren't thinking about the hound, the farmhouse or any events of the previous day. We were at this point more interested in the loot we had acquired and what we were going to do with it.

But as it so often happens, loose ends tend to rear their ugly heads when you least expect them to. Karla was dealing with a vendor when she stopped cold and turned towards a couple of players close-by and listened to what they were saying. I turned my head to where she was looking.

" ... they took on the hound, but didn't manage to kill it. It might be worth the risk, the col alone would probably last me weeks," the first player said.

"You'd have to get a large party though. If we could get the group we had last week, then we would be good to go. I'll talk to them and message you later, it'll take me a couple of days to track them down," he said.

Karla grabbed me by the arm and pulled me to the nearest alley, out of earshot of everyone else. She looked left and right to make sure that no one was coming. Karla got up close to me and whispered "They're going after the hound. It's not fair, we were first. I didn't think anyone else would even care," Karla said.

"So what are we going to do about it?" I asked. Karla looked at me in the eyes and smiled broadly. My eyes widened as I realized what that meant. "You want to go after it before they get to it, is that it?" I surmised.

Karla nodded and poked my breastplate with her index, "Earlier, you said you thought you could pull it off. Before we go any further, I need to know that you still feel that way," she said. Through her commanding tone I sensed the tinge of a plea. The ideas I had at the farmhouse came back clearly in my mind.

"Yes, I truly believe we can," I said. Karla smiled in satisfaction.

I activated my menu, selected messages and started typing.

"What are you doing?" Karla asked.

"I'm messaging Thunder to meet us at the keep as soon as he can, and to bring Ironfist along with him. If we're going to do this we'll need all the help we can get. Ironfist will find it hard to resist a chance to have a second shot at this," I said as I completed the message.

Less than a minute after I sent my message a reply came in: "We'll be there in ten," the message said.

"They're coming. We've got ten minutes before they get to the keep. You want to head there now?" I asked.

"I'll quickly sell some of our stuff first. You go buy the potions we wanted while I do this." Karla ordered. "Why do I get the feeling I got the bad end of the deal?" I joked.

* * *

"Ironfist, are you still game to beat Soul Biter?" I asked.

"Is this some kind of joke? I'm not in the mood for jokes like that," Ironfist said.

"It's no joke. I'm deadly serious. Are you ready to fight? Could you do this again?" I pressed.

"We failed last time. Heck you're the one that forced the retreat. What makes you think anything will be different this time?" Ironfist questioned.

"I know how to beat it this time. But I need your help to do it." I said.

"Help you? Help you! Why on earth would I help you? Now that you've thought about the last hit bonus, I bet that's what you're going for. I'd have even less chance of getting it now," Ironfist complained.

"You can have it for all I care. I don't even know why I try to get through your thick head," I said angrily.

"I'm wasting my time here, I ..." Ironfist started.

"That's enough!" Karla shouted. "There's no time for this. Right now there's a party of players that's being formed who's sole purpose is to take on the hound. They're going to waltz down here with a big team and they're going to beat it by sheer force. We have maybe two days before they get organized. This is our last chance, if we don't act now, everything we went through will be for nothing. Help us make it mean something!"

Ironfist walked up to Karla, his face looked angry. He peered into her eyes, searching for a reason to refuse. Her resolve was complete, her desire unwavering, and perfectly aligned with his original plan, whether he liked it or not.

"Two days you say? All we've got is two days?" Ironfist hissed. "Argh! Why do I get myself into these messes! You, my lady, are going to drive me crazy. Your buddy here better know what he's talking about," he said before turning to Thunder

"Thunder contact the guild! Get everyone down here prepped and ready by tomorrow morning. No exceptions! I'll contact the other players and convince them to come. You two, get your strategy together and be prepared to explain it clearly to everyone. I want everyone to know exactly what they have to do. And this time," Ironfist said,

"We'll beat it."


	30. Take two

The raid group was reformed, led by Ironfist and his guild, the Brutal Knights, and rounded out by independent players who Ironfist had convinced to come. I was given the task of laying out our strategy and I tried to be convincing that our chance were better than they had been before. I was worried that they wouldn't buy it, and that the raid would have to be abandoned. On the other hand, if they did accept it, I was essentially putting them in direct danger. The plan did not guarantee their safety.

In the end they bought it. Final preparations were made; healing items, armor changes, weapon repair, anything the players could prepare they did. This was a new strategy and the best choices were made to fit it. The group had managed its way to the edge of the moors, swiftly taking out any mob that decided to attack us. And now we slowly crept in with our weapons at the ready.

It took less than five minutes for Soul Biter to appear in front of us. The three Vicious Dogs spawning immediately afterward. The hound's aura changed the landscape around us, making everything darker, more foreboding, and transforming what little plant life there was into dried and shriveled versions of themselves. The hound let out a low growl, threatening and taunting us at the same time. We didn't need any more prompting, we knew what we were here for. 

"Move to your first attack positions and engage." Ironfist shouted. 

Karla and I were already heading for our target. We were to take on the dogs as we had done in the previous encounter. Four other players in groups of two would also take a Vicious Dog each. The six remaining players would take on the hound head on.

It started exactly like the first time around, except for one detail: one of the duos was comprised of two blockers, shield bearers that were particularly well adapted to prevent a creature from causing any damage. Combining this with with stunning effects of their attacks, they disabled the attackers sufficiently that only about half the attacks would get through. Their job was to keep their dog occupied, but alive.

We exchanged blows with the dog, switching in and out as fast as we could to do the most damage and quickly get through our foe. It worked, the dog attempted to attack Karla as she switched out and I would come in diverting it's attention, preventing it's attack. I was less lucky, my agility was less than Karla's, I got bitten twice by the dog before we eventually landed a killing blow.

"Clear!" I shouted to indicate our dog was taken care of. 

"Clear!" another player yelled as the other Vicious Dog was disposed of just as swiftly by him and his partner. Ironfist finished his attack on the hound and took a step back. 

"Move to your second attack positions! Move to your second attack positions!" Ironfist shouted.

Players immediately shifted, some to the side, others to the back, effectively surrounding the hound. With two of the dogs out of commission the hound's right side and rear were left exposed. We were going to take advantage of that. Four players consisting of blockers and hard hitters, those that could deal a lot of damage, would take the brunt of the attack and keep the hound's focus on them. The strikers, those with highest agility, were now able to attack the hound from behind and get out of the way before the hound could turn and attempt a bite attack.

I was helping the strikers as best I could. My sword skill was charged up and ready to strike. 

"Ready!" I yelled to Karla. She finished her attack. 

"Switch!" she yelled back. 

I came in with a crushing blow, a downward swing that left a huge gash in the hound's side. It did leave me vulnerable for a moment, but the head group kept the focus, I was able to back out without getting hit. Karla scolded me for choosing that attack. 

"Pick a faster attack. Don't give it any chance to retaliate," she said before doing her next attack. She was right, as always, but the damage caused was worth the risk. 

"I'll give the head group a hand so they can heal up!" I told Karla as I headed to the front. 

"Be careful," Karla begged.

The hound was down to half it's last bar of health when it added a new attack. It shook it's head wildly and knocked the entire head group to the ground. The strikers were now exposed. 

"Look out! He's going to move!" one of the strikers yelled. 

"Get out of its way!" another screamed. 

But it was too late. Soul Biter threw itself to the ground and rolled over the players that were still in the way, before getting backup and slamming it's jaws on the nearest player.

"Karla's over there!" I thought to myself. 

Players screamed as they saw a flash of light and a burst of blue green crystals. For a moment, time seemed to slow down as I began to panic. I got to my feet as fast as I could, and charged the highest damage skill I had, hoping it would make the hound back off a bit. I couldn't see Karla. I hit the hound as hard as I could. The skill hit the target, but I was now helpless. I braced myself for the massive bite that the hound would deliver. But the hound hit metal. 

"You idiot, you'll get yourself killed! Don't let me lose another man!" Ironfist said furious at me as he blocked the hounds attack. "Get back in position were not finished yet!" he yelled to the other players. 

I took a few steps back and instinctively grabbed a potion to bring my health back up. I watched the head group return to the melee as my health bar got back to the green. I ran to where Karla was before I had abandoned her. I couldn't see her. 

"Karla!" I yelled out of despair. 

I charged another sword skill and attacked the hound. This time I heeded Karla requests and used my fastest skill. Just a basic attack, but a brute force one that was damaging enough. I backed off. I screamed again "Karla!" Tears were running freely down my cheeks.

"Take it Ironfist," cried thunder. 

I stopped for a moment and looked at the hound and saw it writhe in pain, freeze for a moment, then shatter into an incredible burst of blue shards of light. All the players in the raid group held their breath in anticipation. Large letters appeared in the air where the hound had stood followed by a popup window in front of each player. The raid group erupted into a chorus of cheers. 

"Yaaaa!", "We did it!", "Ha ha we beat it!" came the comments through the cheers. 

I wanted to cheer but not alone, not without knowing if I still had a partner. I didn't know where to look. 

"Idiot," came a voice behind me that I knew all too well. I spun around and my eyes widened as the figure that stood in front of me simply said:

"Congratulations."


	31. Success

There she stood in front of me, alive, unharmed. The panic and fear that faded from my body made me feel weak and unsteady on my feet. I moved towards her and reached out a hand to touch her shoulder, still unsure that what I saw in front of me was in fact real. It was! I grabbed both her shoulders, pulled her close and hugged her. She resisted slightly but did not push away.

"Karla!" I gasped "I feared you were dead. I saw the hound attack ... I saw the flash of light ... I couldn't find you ... I was so scared," I said. Tears streaming down my cheeks. I released my hold and fell to my knees in front of her. I looked up at her and smiled through my tears, "I'm so happy you're alright," I said. Karla knelt beside me. 

"I'm here and I'm ok. We both made it," she said.

"The terrain is so uneven here that, when the hound rolled over, I fell in that little dip over there, between the rocks," Karla explained. "So I took less damage from the weight of it's body. Don't get me wrong, it was heavy regardless of the rocks protecting me. But I was stunned and couldn't get up or cry out," she said. "But I'm ok now, I hope I didn't worry you too much." she apologized. "Lets go congratulate the others." Karla suggested. 

I took a deep breath and composed myself before getting up and joining the group. Everyone was shaking hands and patting each others backs. Thunder slapped me so hard I almost fell over. The two blockers that had held back the dog all this time gave me a thumbs up. Ironfist came up to me and put his hand out. I shook it. He seemed pleased as never before.

"You got it didn't you! You got the last hit bonus!" I said. Ironfist smiled broadly. "I don't want to know." I said as I put my hand up between us. "You got what you came for, and I hope you will put it to good use. I don't want to envy you for it," I said smiling wryly. Ironfist smiled back. 

"Suit yourself, and yes, I will put it to good use," Ironfist said. "I'm headed back up to higher floors. The guild is going to try to assist the clearing group as best it can. I also want to recruit more members." Ironfist said. He paused a moment before continuing, "The guild could use a couple of players of your caliber. So, if you're up for it, I would like to offer you a place in our group." he suggested.

I was surprised and flattered by the offer, but unsure that I was ready for it. I turned to Karla; she was frowning slightly. 

"Forgive me, I'll have to decline. It's very kind of you to offer but I'm not ready to be in a guild yet," Karla said, with a tinge of regret in her voice. "I can't speak for you, Wolf. You should choose your own path. I don't want to be in your way. It's a good offer, but I'm just not up for it," she admitted.

"I'll stay with Karla," I told Ironfist. Karla was going to object when I interrupted her. "I'm not ready either. I'm not just saying that to patronize you, it's truly how I feel. We feel the same way, because we've lived the same experiences. We're in sync with each other. So it's normal that if you're not ready, I don't feel ready either," I concluded.

Ironfist was visibly disappointed, though I think he was more disappointed at not getting Karla than me. 

"Shame! It really is a shame that you won't join us. Maybe I'm being a little presumptuous," Ironfist apologized. "I'll leave the invitation open. Maybe time, or necessity, will make you change your minds. Farewell to you both," Ironfist said as he shook our hands one last time.

The group dispersed as we headed back to town. Some teleported directly to other floors. Others went to the town's market first to sell some of the loot they couldn't use. Most of Ironfist's guild were heading back to the keep first, probably to discuss plans for their next raid, and to trade the loot, they had acquired, with each other. We had had our fill of the day, and on Karla's suggestion, we walked near the big tree just outside the town walls.

"I don't know if we'll ever see them again," I wondered. 

Karla looked at me a little shocked by my comment. I realized it sounded a little foreboding. 

"Oh! I didn't mean in that way, I think they'll be safe enough." I apologized. "The floors are vast. And each time a boss is defeated there's more space for players to go. So less and less chance of bumping into an acquaintance, so to speak. They also wanted to help the clearing group, it's likely that they'll stay on the highest floor," I explained. Karla sighed and held her hands together. 

"No one is really safe though. Even the best plans don't ensure that everyone survives. There's always a chance someone won't make it back," Karla said her eyes fixed on the ground in front of us. "We're lucky there was only one casualty. If you can call him a casualty. It's more like a victim of a crime who's author we can't stop," she grumbled.

"I refuse to be a victim," I said, "And I believe you do also." Karla looked at me and frowned. 

"I'd like to say I'll refuse it, but I don't know what we'll have to face. What if we end up in over our heads; the next encounters could overwhelm us. I don't know if I'll be strong enough," she admitted as she turned away from me. I grabbed her shoulder and firmly turned her to face me. 

"Don't give me this nonsense," I scolded. "I've seen you stand up to players and show them what you're made of. I've seen you take on creatures with determination and confidence. I've seen you maintain control, even when things were chaotic. You've stood up to me and set me straight when I wasn't being fair," I praised.

"I saw your strength from the moment we first started partying together. You shouldn't doubt yourself." I said. Karla's cheeks took on a bright shade of pink. "You once said absentmindedly that 'It's what Karla would do'. That's always been bouncing around in my mind. You've always aspired to be like this Karla person you talk about. But I think you've overlooked something important." I said. I pulled her closer to me and weighing my words, I whispered in her ear.

"Karla ... IS ... you!"


	32. Identity

"What ... what are you saying?" Karla stuttered as she pushed me away. 

"I'm saying: you aspire to be someone that you already are. It's as if you think of yourself below this person. Well I don't think so. The Karla I have in front of me should be proud of who she is. I honestly feel you are more than what you give yourself credit for," I assured.

"I don't think you understand exactly what you're saying," she argued. 

"Then clarify it for me, There's so much I've come to learn about you and yet I feel there are many layers that you keep hidden," I pressed. 

"You're prying into my personal life again," she warned. 

"So what if I am. You're not just another component of the game you know. You're a real person with a reality beyond this one, but you're hiding behind your name," I said

"I'm not hiding!" Karla said indignantly. 

She crossed her arms tightly, and pursed her lips. 

"My name is my choice; it's personal! Why do I have to tell you why I chose it?" she asked. 

I saw the conflict in her eyes: a longing to share mixed with a fear to trust. Karla was vulnerable and maybe I should have dropped the subject. But I didn't want to. 

"Because I'm your friend and I care about you," I raged as I answered her question. "But it's hard with so little to go on. You've been trying to emulate someone; it seems to be your goal, and yet you claim you haven't reached it. Fine! Maybe you're not there yet, maybe there are still steps to be taken. But I can't help you get there if I don't know who this Karla really is!" I said in exasperation.

"Karla's a doll! Ok! A dumb stupid doll of mine," she bawled. 

She looked at me for a moment then buried her face in her hands and turned her back to me. 

"I'm so embarrassed now," she sobbed. "It was embarrassing enough to be attached to it without having to tell someone about it. Are you going to laugh at me now? Tell me I'm a big baby? Tell me to grow up?" she said.

"No," I said softly. 

Karla flinched as if she'd just lost something. Her anger was pushed aside and left her vulnerable. She took a deep breath. 

"I don't know if I believe you," she pouted. "You're just being polite. You're probably thinking I'm too immature and that someone else would be better suited to be your partner," she sighed.

"No one is better suited," I replied. "I've never found reason to ever laugh at you. So what, if you have a secret that you thought others would consider childish? I don't think it is. I play video games, I watch anime, I collect trading cards, I'm the last person in the world that could ever tell you to grow up," I admitted. 

"But it's more than just a toy isn't it?" I inquired

Karla winced. I was prying into a sensitive part of her personality. Revealing a hidden and very personal part of her. She bowed her head and sighed.

"I feel silly. I thought I'd grown out of it by now," Karla said. 

She turned to face me again. 

"It's not much of a story, but I'll tell you if you really want to know," she offered. 

I nodded and invited her to sit under the tree. She sat with her back to the tree and her legs stretched out in front of her. I sat in front of her a little to her right. 

"I was ten when I got Karla. One of the girls at my birthday party gave it to me. She practically apologized to me because it wasn't one of those high fashion dolls, with ridiculous makeup and clothes, that we sometimes played with. This one was more natural looking, and wearing clothes that were similar to what the teens were actually wearing at the time," Karla explained.

"The girl told me she was a 'Clara' doll, part of a line of similar dolls, and I could get her clothes and other accessories. I misunderstood when she said it, I heard 'Karla'. When my guests pointed out my mistake, I told them it was her name: that I would call the doll Karla. They all agreed it was a cool name. A little quick thinking saved me from further embarrassment," she recollected. 

"She was different than my other dolls; she always had a special place in my games. She was the strong one. She was the one that saved the day. The hero in all my stories. Sometimes I felt her choices didn't even come from me. She had her own reality which sometimes went against my own playacting. If I tried to make her do something out of character, I would scold myself saying: 'It's not how Karla would do it.' "

"Because I had made her stronger than all the other characters in my games, she also became a comfort when things were rough." 

Karla's eyes glistened and she took a deep breath before continuing. 

"I would talk to her about how I felt. Then I would ask her: 'What would you do?'. I always seemed to get an answer. I wouldn't always follow the suggestion, either from lack of courage or out of hatred, and when that happened, I usually ended up regretting it." Karla said

"Eventually I grew up. Most of my dolls got put away, or were given away. I stopped playing pretend games and became more interested in my studies and my social life. But I always kept the doll. She now sits on a shelf in my bookcase. I still look at her when things are rough, or when I'm nervous about an event, or some school presentation I have to give. It helps to calm my nerves," Karla said. 

Unconsciously she gently breathed out.

"It also means I pick her name as an alias whenever I'm online. I've had a bit of luck, in the past, that others don't pick the name Karla that often, so I usually get it for my avatars. Though sometimes I do have to add a number or something at the end. It was the first name that came to mind when this game asked me for one. The game was so new that the name was available," she said.

"When the game turned out to be a potential death trap, I almost lost it. I didn't know what to do. I would cry myself to sleep at night. And when I wasn't crying I usually just sat somewhere holding my arms close to my body as if I was cold. I'm afraid to think of what I might have done to myself if I hadn't managed to eventually calm down and focus on surviving." 

Karla shuddered as she recalled how she felt.

"Karla and what she represented managed to work its way through the despair I was feeling and it calmed me. I started to feel that I should honor the nature of who Karla was. I had chosen her name, and in some way it meant I wanted to emulate her. So I managed to muster enough courage to go out and brave the wilderness. I equipped myself with what little funds I had and steped out of the safety of the town," she said 

"Completely terrified I challenged my first creature and managed to kill it before it took all my health. At that moment the terror left me. I felt the thrill of the win and it gave me confidence. 'I can do this.' I told myself and I thanked Karla for the courage. Everything I did after that, I tried to do it in the same way I perceived Karla would. And it served me fairly well, even though I would sometimes lose my confidence and end up spending the day in my room," Karla said.

"So that's it," Karla said "That's the story of my name and what it means to me. I don't know if it makes sense to anyone else. I've never talked to anyone about it." 

She leaned her head back against the tree and stared up at the sky. The leaves rustled slightly as a light breeze blew in. 

"I just want to be strong, you know, to have the courage to stand up to this game of death. Karla was a way to focus on that." Karla explained.

"Wolf, does it change anything between us?" Karla asked shyly. "I mean, being obsessed with a doll and needing it to face what this world throws at us, seems a little crazy. I'll understand if you think it's too weird. I can't force you to accept me, but I hope that you can," she said. 

She looked at me with worry in her eyes. 

"It's who you are. No more no less. If Karla the doll is anything like Karla the girl, then she must be wonderful. As for me they are one in the same. It doesn't matter to me where you get your inspiration, but I like what I see. And I stand by what I said before: You are who you aspire to be. You are 'Karla' and everything that the name represents to you," I assured.

"You've opened up to me, more than I expected, and more than I deserved. We've been through a lot together and I could never push that aside. But most importantly we've been through it as friends." I said. 

My face felt warm. 

"And true friends don't abandon each other, as I won't abandon you. I want to continue to share this adventure with you, as your friend. I offer you my friendship and everything it represents." 

I put my hand out in front of me. Without hesitation she put her hand in mine and said:

"Together, my friend."


	33. Friends

"Karla's my friend now. She's confirmed it," I thought as I savored what that meant. 

I felt we'd always been friends ever since the first party we formed. We just never actually expressed it out loud. I had never asked anyone before to be my friend, not in so many words at least. I could now say "My friend Karla ..." in a conversation and it wouldn't feel awkward, because we both agreed that it was true. It seemed goofy if I'd think about it, but I didn't care. 

If I scrolled through my menus and brought up my friend list, her name would be there. But the list was now a technicality, I didn't need it to affirm my friendship to Karla. I used to feel that if the list was wiped out for some reason, or that she felt she had to remove me, it meant she would not want anything to do with me. Not anymore, we were beyond a list.

I'd had this nagging feeling that our relationship might have been temporary. Simply partying for convenience, acquiring strength that alone we each couldn't muster, offering each other protection and watching each other's back. It could be that one day we would make a choice and go our separate ways, meet new people, and relinquish each other to a pleasant souvenir.

Some of my thoughts had been more sinister; that we were together only because of the game, for its purpose and not for ours. That, for some reason, it was simply a necessary step to achieve some goal, finish some unseen quest. Could the game have contained that kind of manipulative control mechanism? It was a chilling thought to say the least.

On the other hand the game had played a crucial role in our relationship. We probably would never have even met had it not been for it. Our real lives weren't related in any way. I had had no knowledge of Karla prior to logging in. She could have lived a thousand kilometers away for all I knew. Even if she was close by, she'd still be one person in a sea of millions.

"No! It's real. More than anything in this world, it's real," I thought to myself. 

It was a thought that made me happy, happier than I'd been in a long time. I felt it was part of something greater, something permanent. It's as if I had made a promise not only to be her friend now but actually stay her friend forever. I had a new responsibility towards her and I would never be able to deny it. 

*Thump*

Something hit me in the face and brought me back to reality. Karla stood beside my bed giggling with her pillow in her hand. Nothing's worse or more brutal than being a victim of a cloth bag containing feathers. 

"Wake up sleepyhead. I want to go hunting and you know what they say : The early bird gets the worm!" Karla exclaimed. 

"That's not exactly an incentive to get up," I grumbled. 

*Wump* 

I received the pillow right in the face again. This time I grabbed it and launched it towards Karla. She dodged it and it hit the wall. 

"Tsk! You missed," she jeered. As she headed for the door. "If you practice, you might have a remote chance of hitting me," she teased. 

I grabbed my own pillow and threw it at her as quickly as I could. It hit the door; Karla had slipped out faster than I could throw the pillow. 

"She's a better shot than I am. It's that agility of hers that's hard to beat," I thought to myself. 

I got out of bed and picked up the pillows I had tossed. I threw the pillows on each bed, got dressed, then headed down to the common room. Karla was at one of the tables reading the latest news and sipping some tea. I sat in front of her and poured myself a cup.

"Alakazam! Turn this tea into coffee!" I commanded. "Nope didn't work," I said as I sipped my tea waiting to see how Karla would react to my silliness.

She just raised her eyebrows and sighed. 

"I'll order some breakfast then," I said sheepishly.

I proceeded to give our order to the waitress who had showed up at our table. 

"Anything of interest in the news?" I asked after the waitress left. 

"They've already cleared the twentieth floor boss and they plan to take on a boss at least once a week. It's amazing how fast they're going. And casualties have been very low. I hope it'll stay that way." Karla said. 

She put the paper down and took a sip of her tea. 

"I wonder if we'll ever get to their level." Karla wondered. 

"It all depends on you, well both of us actually," I said as breakfast arrived. "The more we train and hunt, the better we get. We go up levels, we acquire new skill, we then take on tougher monsters, and the cycle continues. The levels take longer to acquire the higher we go. But if we keep at it I'm sure we'll eventually get up there. When that time comes we'll make our choice to fight with the clearing group or not," I rambled.

"Yeah, I know. It doesn't make me feel any better, it seems so far away. In some ways I envy them, you know, their courage and the fact that they help everyone by clearing the dungeons, and opening new floors. But at what cost? So many have died trying to help. It's something I find hard to take. I don't know if I'll ever be able to face that prospect," she said as she bit her lower lip.

"Well at least you won't face it alone. I'll stand by you," I remarked. 

Karla's face relaxed and she smiled a little. 

"There's no point in having doubts about it now. We've still got a ways to go. Not to mention that we've only explored a fraction of this world we're in. We haven't even tried to enter a dungeon yet. There's still so much we can do to improve before taking on a floor boss." I said.

"You're right. It's just that, it's unnerving to be stuck in this game, with no other way out than completing it. I don't think I've ever completed a game in my life. And none of them were as hard or as complex as this one. Becoming strong enough seems so far away. I'm running out of patience, you know, to get it over and done with," Karla fretted.

Karla shook her head, and gave me a broad smile.

"Well it certainly won't happen if we sit here all day eating breakfast," Karla exclaimed. 

I smiled and we dug into our food. 

"We could explore the moors, the creatures there should give good experience points. Everything closer to town has become a little too easy. I'm up for the challenge. What do you say?" I asked. 

Karla grabbed my hand and gently squeezed it, she smiled and said:

"Sounds like a plan."


	34. Familiar

Out hunting again! It felt like I was back in a familiar pattern: fight monsters, avoid death, get drops, get xp, raise my levels; your typical MMORPG grind. Somehow it never grew old for me. I chose to play these types of games and I knew that I'd be doing a lot of this. As for this game, the stakes were higher, the experience was more intense, and the variety was astonishing. Horribly unforgiving, but strangely appealing, and in some ways pleasurable.

I was in a cheery mood. But I don't think it was the game that helped it along. Spending time with a friend can make even the gloomiest days more pleasant. When you're connected like that, you're more aware of your experiences. Everything around you takes on a deeper reality. You get to share and remember every detail of your activities. And you do your best simply because it's worth it. I got to share it with Karla, so I was going to make the most of it.

With Soul Biter out of the way, the moors made for new hunting grounds. We hesitantly entered the sparsely vegetated area unsure of what we would encounter. The place was devoid of trees, in fact the tallest plant was less than a meter in height, and was mostly a rough flatland of grasses and brush. This gave the land a general gray-green colour with patches of pink where some heather grew. 

Wild sheep could be seen dotting the landscape, they were the only visible animals out here, giving the impression that there weren't any other creatures out on the moors. The road that wound through it was also deserted, most players had not gotten the news that the moors were now safe to hunt, well safer anyways. The stillness of the moors did give the impression that that it was a safe place. 

It didn't take long for us to realize that most creatures out here were in fact hard to see. Some of them were actually part of the landscape. A Rock Crawler caught us off guard and managed to trip me before we realized we were being attacked. I rolled away as fast as I could to avoid its large rock protrusions coming down on me. This thing looked like a crab but with club like arms where the pincers would normally be. 

Karla stepped aside and, as quick as always, unsheathed her katana. 

"Geez, it came out of nowhere. You okay?" Karla inquired not taking her eyes off of it. 

She charged a sword skill and glanced my way to see if I was ready. I nodded and got up quickly. Karla would be the first in the fight which means she would get the brunt of its attack if I didn't step in. I charged my sword skill and waited for her signal. She attacked with a double slash attack that left her a little too close to her opponent. 

"Switch!" she called out. 

I rushed in and deflected the monster's attack with the side of my battle axe. I swung upwards and connected a powerful blow which forced the beast take a step back. Focusing on me, it hammered me with its rock-arms. I couldn't block all the hits but I didn't back out, I wanted it to keep its attention on me. I saw Karla sidestep and head of to my right. 

"Perfect," I thought with a smile on my face. 

It was my turn to sidestep to the left and attack its right side. The Rock Crawler turned towards me readying an attack. The creature jerked and failed to complete its move. Karla successfully attacked it from behind and causing it to lose focus. She also managed to drain a lot of its health. 

"Ha ha, you brainless limestone freak. Didn't see that coming did you?" I jeered as I rushed it again with a downward swing which stunned it. 

Karla took advantage of this. The creature had no chance and Karla and I quickly finished it off.

"Brainless limestone freak?" Karla queried. "Where did that come from?" 

"I was trying to taunt it. Probably not the best insult I could come up with. But it's not like I had time to think it over," I said as I shrugged my shoulders. 

"They were igneous rocks. Really, it's back to classes for you!" Karla said with a miss-know-it-all attitude. 

I stuck my tongue out at her, and we both laughed it off.

"Seriously though, I think we need to keep a better eye out for what's in our path. I did not expect that at all. Let's see if we can spot our target before it spots us, shall we?" I proposed. 

We continued our exploration at a slower pace, straining our eyes and ears for any early warnings of what was ahead, and paying particular attention to our left and right sides.

"There!" Karla whispered as she pointed out a group of small humanoid creatures. 

"Goblins?" I wondered. 

"I think so, but we're not close enough to get their info," Karla replied. 

"I count four but I'm guessing there are more, the rocks partially block my view. I could probably knock down three or four of them. That would get their attention, then you could come up from behind and take out any remaining ones," I said.

"Okay. But, just so you know, I'm only agreeing to take them on because goblins should drop some good stuff. There are more of them than I'm comfortable with," Karla fretted. 

"Got it. I'll stick to fast or group attacks to keep them from retaliating," I said. 

I put my hand on Karla's shoulder, she turned and nodded. I nodded back and we got our weapons ready.

With their position in mind me moved as close as possible while trying to remain out of their sight. My heart was thumping like crazy: we had the upper hand and we would be wise to take advantage of it. I readied a sword skill, then ran directly to where the goblins were gathered. I swung my battle axe as wide and arc as possible attacking four Goblins. Two Goblins were killed instantly, the other two were flat out on their backs. 

"Oh no you don't!" Karla announced as she took out another goblin that was attacking me from behind. 

She couldn't get the other one right away, the bugger slashed at my legs with a hand axe. My health went down but stayed in the green. I swung at this new opponent and he backed off.

"Finish what you started, I'll get this one!" Karla said as she jabbed at the goblin. 

I turned around to face two goblins that were just getting up. I charged a sword skill as they came at me. I blocked one of them while the other managed to hit me across the stomach. They were jumping around like rabbits. Relying on the sword skills I managed to connect a crushing blow with my target, effectively killing it.

"Oh you little fiend!" Karla squealed as the goblin connected a blow. 

I looked up to her health bar; she wasn't in immediate danger. 

"Good!" I thought to myself. "Time to deal with you," I growled to the goblin. 

I charged another sword skill which gave the goblin time to attack me. I focused on the skill, trying to ignore the sharp pain in my leg coming from the gash left by its attack. When I released the skill, it made me jump directly in the goblin's path swinging the battle axe upwards. A frozen look of surprise, a burst of particles and the goblin was no more. A similar popping sound came from Karla's direction. 

"Finally. The little bugger just wouldn't die," Karla complained. 

"I'm not surprised, these were feistier than what we've encountered before," I said. 

We looked around to make sure we wouldn't trigger anything else. Kalra took out two health potions and handed me one, which I gladly accepted.

"Let's head back to the road. I want to get our bearings. I want to see if the sheep drop anything good," I said. 

"Oh I wonder what?" Karla chimed sarcastically "Shall we find a craftsman to make you some warm mittens for the winter? Or maybe a cute little hat with a pompom? I bet the flowers out here could even die it pink," Karla mused.

"Ha ha. Not my colour. No, actually I was thinking we could get a good price for it," I said trying to be more practical. "But if you want, I can buy you a pair of needles and you can try your hand at it. I'm sure we can find a NPC granny to teach you," I teased. 

"Who said I couldn't knit?" Karla shot back. 

There I went opening my mouth without thinking again. I coughed as if clearing my throat. 

"Anyways, shall we get back to our activities," I said trying to change the subject. 

"Okay then. Wolf I ..." Karla started. But nothing else came out of her mouth. 

I turned to look at her. She had stopped in mid speech. No only her voice, her whole body was frozen. I stared at her hoping it was a temporary glitch in the game. 

Something was horribly wrong. The wind had stopped. Everything around me was perfectly still. Even the environment sounds had stopped, not like when things go quiet in a house after everyone's gone to bed, but completely shut out. I found myself unable to speak, unable to move. Gripped with fear, I tried to scream but nothing came out. Then the whole scene in front of me disappeared. 

Everything went black.


	35. Blackout

I tried to yell but nothing came out. I opened my eyes but I couldn't see anything.

"It's dark. Is it night? Was I dreaming? I don't remember going to sleep," I thought to myself.

I looked around; I couldn't see anything. Everything was black. Not only could I not see anything, I could barely move: my arms, my legs, my head, it's as if they were stuck in very thick honey.

"Where am I?" I thought to myself, even if I was pretty sure I was not going to get an answer to that question.

This was unlike any place I had been before. I tried to peer into the darkness, but no matter where I looked I couldn't see anything. No shadows, no reflections, no light, just a black canvas out of reach. I couldn't tell if the background was solid, it seemed to be too far away for me to discern any part of it.

I had the sensation of being on my back, or at least horizontal. I didn't recall having fallen down though. Falling down implies that you've fallen onto something. As such, I didn't appear to be on anything at all. It gave me the impression that I was floating. It was the same feeling you get when you float on your back in a pool except in this case I couldn't feel any water around me.

I appeared to be the only thing in this space. I strained to look at my body, at my hands, and my feet. Oddly enough I could see it clearly. It wasn't in darkness, it actually seemed to give off light. I was dressed as I usually was, even wearing my armour. Everything on me seemed to be in its regular place.

"Nothing's missing. At least that's something," I said to myself.

 I watched my hand as I tried to move my arm, as if staring at them would help it along. It had no effect, apart from giving me a slight headache.

I relaxed and as I did, I thought I'd heard a noise. I strained to hear it, but it vanished. So I tried to relax again. This time it came back. Muffled sounds as if very far away or through a wall or layers of clothing. The sounds were rapid and in short bursts. They would come and then die away completely. Then nothing, my mind went completely blank.

* * *

 

I woke up again with a start.

"Did I fall asleep? What's this strange feeling?" I wondered.

I felt compressed for a moment then let go. A bit like being on a crowded bus when people get on or off, they push and move people out of the way, and you get squished against a pole or another person. And then it settles as the bus leaves and people relax.

I stared out into the blackness, that still surrounded me, trying to focus on what would happen next. Then a new sensation came. Very light vibrations, barely perceptible, along my back and my legs. They stopped for a brief time, maybe thirty seconds, maybe a minute, before resuming again, this time punctuated by light jerks. I was overtaken by a dizziness just as the vibrations stopped. If I'd been standing I probably would have fallen down.

I instinctively closed my eyes to block out the dizziness, which turned out to be a little pointless. What I saw with my eyes closed was the same as with my eyes open: total blackness. Eventually the feeling went away and I was left totally alone again, floating in this empty space. I decided it was better to try to relax, and to try to think about other things, than to worry about something I couldn't do anything about.

My thoughts strayed to the moment before everything went black: the moors, the goblins, Karla.

"Karla! Oh my goodness Karla. I hope she's alright. Is she stuck like me? Or is she all alone on the moors if I'm here, wherever here happens to be? And, if so, did she get back to town safely. Stupid system, I can't even open my menu to send her a message," I worried.

"The health bar. Her health bar should be under mine, we were in a party," I thought.

I tried to move my head enough to see our health bars. Both our health bars were there, almost full. I calmed down a bit. But something was wrong.

"The bars are gray! Both of them. How can they be gray?" I puzzled.

I'd never seen that before anywhere in the game.

"So I'm no further ahead. I don't know if Karla is still alive," I thought.

I felt myself welling with anguish. Not that I could shed any tears or whatnot, I couldn't outwardly express any emotion. I could only feel it in my thoughts. I tried to calm myself.

"Turn it around Wolf. Not knowing if she's alive means you also don't know that she's dead. You just don't know!" I scolded. "I will assume, until proven otherwise, that she is alive. I can't bear to think about it any other way," I concluded.

I forced myself to recall her face, happy or sad it was all the same to me as long as I could recall it. I saw her, like flashbacks in a movie. Different places and different moments where I had looked at her and had captured an image in my mind. And for a moment I forgot where I was. Lost in my thoughts I drifted off to some sort of sleep.

* * *

I couldn't tell how long I'd been out when I was stirred from my slumber by more vibrations along my whole body. Again they were weak and only perceptible along my back and legs. But they were punctuated by occasional jerks in movement which startled me. It's one of these jerks that had woken me. The silence I'd experienced before was now filled with muffled voices and sounds.

A strange mixture of high pitched sounds, very low rumbles, and incomprehensible voice like sounds. Combining that with the vibrations, made for an unsettling mix. If I focused on something they'd go away; if I relaxed and emptied my mind they would come back in force. Though I couldn't understand anything I heard, it gave off a feeling of urgency and stress.

It frustrated me that I couldn't figure out the reason for being where I was, and how I'd gotten here.

"Why wasn't I in the game? What had happened to me? Or am I still in the game under the influence of some paralyzing effect?"

I chased the thought away.

"That couldn't be, paralysis in games just prevents you from acting, it doesn't make you black out."

A horrifying thought crossed my mind.

"Have I been disconnected from the game?" I worried.

"Why me? I don't want to die here!" I tried to scream.

We'd had all seen the reports of people dying when they were forced out of the game.

"I'm going to die because of a bug in the program. And there's nothing I can do about it," I admitted. "Help me. Help me! Anyone!" I attempted to cried out.

It was hopeless, what little sound I could muster was barely audible.

I was shaking on the inside, even if my body remained still, and I felt sick. I would have thrown up under normal circumstances, but the system didn't seem to permit it. I was panicking, imagining all types of horrible effects I would feel the moment I would die. It would either be that I'd be wracked with terrible pain or at the other extreme, I would simply fade away not knowing that the end had come. Neither prospect appealed to me.

I felt I'd lost. It's ironic to think that I could lose by being lost. I didn't know where I was, facing my end, unable to fight, unable to abandon either. If this had been a duel I could have at least had the option to resign.

"I can't even abandon," I grumbled.

I resigned myself to the fact that I had to simply wait for the end.

"I can't abandon," I thought.

There was no way to cancel my current state. But somehow the words stirred something in my brain.

"I can't abandon!"

The words meaning seemed to change.

"I shouldn't abandon even if I could."

The words no longer sounded depressing.

"There's too much out there for me. There's no way I'll let anything make me lose hope," I exclaimed to myself.

"I will not abandon!"


	36. Return

"I keep drifting off," I thought as I was stirred from my slumber. 

I was awakened by a mass of different voices again. The vibrations were gone though. I was still surrounded by this never ending blackness. Waking up to the same lack of scenery gave me the impression that time had stopped or that I was repeating the same day, over and over again.

The voices this time were more quarrelsome. I sensed anger and argument through the unintelligible mumblings. I hopped that I wasn't the reason for their argument, it's not like I could have defended myself anyway. It felt as if my mother and my grandmother were arguing over something that concerned me, which happened occasionally. I remember not being able to do anything about it, and praying that I wouldn't be punished in the end. 

The voices cut out quite suddenly and I was left in silence for what seemed a long time. I strained to hear, but there was nothing there. I tried to relax and see if the voices would return, but they didn't right away. I don't know how long I waited as I had no proper bearing to base time on: a clock would have been useful, but even the basic pattern of a day would have given me a hint.

The voices did eventually return. The voices would come and go in no particular pattern. The tone was sometimes aggressive and other times banal. Separated by long periods of silence. It was irritating, each time I hoped something would happen, and each time I was let down. My mind pointlessly trying to speculate what was going to happen to me or what the origin of the voices were. For all I knew, they might not have been voices at all. 

Without warning the feeling of being squeezed came again for a moment, then disappeared. All the while the mumblings continued. They came from all around me. I tried to cry out in a last ditch effort, but my state had not changed. Unable to speak or move in this strange black soup. The sounds were fading away. I felt they would not return. My heart sank, and I braced myself for the end to come.

I lay there staring out into the total blackness. Well almost total, there was that one white dot. 

"Hang on a minute, that wasn't there before," I said to myself. 

My mind was playing tricks on me. I looked around; the white dot followed my gaze, exactly like when I'd stare at a streetlight when it was dark and then look away, the aftereffect would always follow where I'd look as it would slowly fade away. But this point was not fading. I stared at it as I tried to figure out what it was. Then it exploded!

Everything around me turned blindingly white. Streaks of colour rained down from the center point. A jumble of images flashed by, distorted, out of focus, and sometimes blocky. The streaks intensified and sped up. I heard a whirring sound accompanied by vibrations along my body. Then I felt my body move. I could move my arms a bit. I struggled to pull myself free. I summoned all my strength and pushed as hard as I could.

"Aaaaah!" I heard myself scream. 

I sat bolt upright and flailed my arms in front of me. Something went thud to my left. The blackness, the streaks of lights and the whirring sound had vanished. My eyes came into focus. I was sitting in a bed, in a room that was familiar. I looked at my hands they were covered by gloves. My arms had light armor, my chest was covered with a breast plate.

"Gasp!" came a voice to my left. 

I turned my head to look. My eyes widened. A girl was on the floor next to my bed with her back against another bed. She looked as if she had just fallen down. 

"Karla?" I asked stupidly, still awestruck by where I was. 

"Wolf!" Karla cried. 

She quickly got up off the floor and grabbed my right shoulder and stared into my eyes. Then she hit me with her free hand. 

"You bastard!" she cursed as she hit me repeatedly with the side of her fist. "Why do you do this to me?" she yelled. 

I caught her hand as it came down on me one more time. Her face screwed up and tears filled her eyes. I pulled her to me and put my arms around her. She gave up trying to hit me. 

"I was afraid you were going to die," Karla cried. She sobbed in my arms. 

"I'm back. I'm back now," I whispered as I held her tightly. "I'm so happy to see you. I didn't know what was going on and I didn't know if you were ok. I was freaking out. I had no way to reach you, no way of telling where you were," I babbled. I squeezed her tight. "But I'm back now. I hope I never go there again," I added.

"Back? What do you mean when you say 'back'. Back from what?" Karla asked. 

She gently pushed away and looked up at me. Her eyes were calmer, though still tearful. 

"I mean, you never went anywhere. You just stayed there, limp, unmoving. Where could you have possibly gone?" she inquired. 

I put my hand on her cheek as if I was afraid she would disappear again. 

I told her everything of my ordeal. The noises, the vibrations, the feeling of being trapped, and the blackness, that ever present blackness that had surrounded me. She listened intently, not even asking questions even though I felt she wanted to. It's not like I gave her much opportunity to say anything as I spewed it all, without pausing till I was done. 

My story finished quite abruptly. There just wasn't anything to add. We just sat there on my bed in silence. I felt like apologizing, but it wasn't my fault and it felt like a cheap thing to do. So I just stared at my hands and reflected on where I was and the bitter feeling that I was really lucky to be alive. Life shouldn't be a question of luck. I wished I could take it for granted, if only for a little while. 

I saw Karla falter then catch herself. I looked up, her eyes were blinking repeatedly. She looked so run down. 

"Karla, are you ok?" I asked. 

She looked stressed out, as if she'd gone through some ordeal. I wanted to ask but felt it could wait. She looked away a little embarrassed. 

"Why don't you lie down and rest," I said. 

She protested a little and I shook my head. 

"Just rest now. I'll be here when you wake up." 

She nodded, got up and sat on the other bed.

She changed into something more comfortable. I pretended I didn't notice, it wasn't the moment to add more stress. But I did feel my cheeks blush a little. I also changed out of my armor. Even if I'd spent most of my time on my back, I felt tired, worn down. A good night sleep couldn't hurt. Karla had quickly fallen asleep. I laid down and reached to turn out the light but stopped. I pulled my hand back and laid in bed. I looked at the light and thought to myself

"Tonight, I won't welcome the darkness."


	37. Powerless

Nightmares! Turns out, leaving a light on didn't prevent me from dreaming. That night I was plagued with nightmares. The type of scary dreams where I'm powerless to act and in hopeless situations. Dreams that grip you with fear for no reason at all. Similar to the ones I would get if I ran a fever when I was younger. I was unable to stop the dreams and unable to wake from them myself. The dreams had control and they would decide when they would wake me up.

Multiple times during the night I awoke, my breath short and rapid, my arms and legs tensed up. Each time, I was on my back, staring at the ceiling, trying to get my bearings. I would turn to look at Karla sleeping in her own bed, hoping that she was having a better night than I was. Not wishing to wake her, I would just lay there waiting for the feelings of terror to fade. I think a walk would have done me some good, but I had promised Karla I would be there when she woke. All I could do was to calm down and pray for the morning to come quickly.

I was staring at the ceiling when Karla woke up. I was still tired but it meant I would lose the nightmares. 

"Good morning," I said as I turned my head on my pillow. 

She sat up in her bed and sighed with satisfaction. I guessed that I chased away her fear that I wouldn't wake again. She smiled warmly at me, then quickly pulled her legs to her chest and shyly turned away. I changed out of my night clothes and headed to the door. 

"I'll order some tea, come down when you're ready," I said. 

I exited the room without another glance. That way, it gave her the time she needed to get ready without me being in the way. Getting dressed was just a few menu selections, but getting ready wasn't only about what armour you wore.

I ordered some tea, all the while trying to avoid making any comments on the total lack of coffee in this world. I was imagining the hostess offering me coffee but I had refused because I truly wanted tea. And that's why I was having tea that morning. If one tries hard enough, one can delude oneself on just about anything. But I was finding it hard to picture myself refusing coffee.

I was sipping my tea, lost in my thoughts: about coffee, about blackness, about Karla, when she finally came down to the common room. She descended the stairs slowly, like when someone doesn't want to start their day. She waved her fingers and lightly smiled without showing any teeth. She sat down in front of me as I poured her a cup of tea.

We sat in silence for a bit. Karla just sipped her tea. We exchanged shy glances, we both wanted to say something but it seemed hard to find a place to begin. Karla got up her courage and broke the silence, tentatively at first. 

"Wolf, how are you today?" she queried. Her tone was soft almost motherly. 

"I fine now, thank you," I replied. 

"I mean with all you've been through, are you going to be okay?" she worried.

"I'm good. Really! I got a lot of nightmares last night but there's no reason for them to plague me for very long. I tend to only dream about the most recent events in my life. As long as I don't dwell on what happened, and I keep myself busy, they should just fade away and become an unfortunate souvenir." I responded. "Don't worry about it too much. I'll let you know if it really starts bothering me," I assured. 

Karla nodded in response. 

"I throw the question back at you: How are you doing? Are YOU ok?" I asked

Karla put her cup on the table and stared at it, holding it with both hands. If I didn't know her I would have mistakenly thought she was warming her hands. 

"It's weird you know. I'm so happy you're ok and at the same time I'm so mad. When something like this happens I want someone to blame. I want to get revenge, give punishment or something. But there's no target, no creature, and worse of all: no reason," she grumbled.

I bent over the table to get her to look at me. Startled by my action she spilled her tea. 

"Oh dear, I'm so careless," she apologized. 

I gave her a quizzical look. 

"This isn't like you, Karla. You're acting all weird. What's up?" I urged. 

She rubbed her hands nervously.

"I'm sorry, I was happy you were okay and I didn't want to ruin the day just because of my frustration. I'm a poor actress, I guess," she admitted.

I picked up her cup and refilled it. I smiled wryly as I put it down in front of her. 

"Don't spill it," I teased. 

She pursed her lips for a moment. I was expecting a comment but she simply let it go. 

"So what happened while I was out? How did I end up back at the inn? It must have been difficult for you, but until you tell me how it was, it'll be hard for me to relate," I pleaded. 

"I .. well you, you just collapsed out there on the moors. I heard you fall and stopped. I thought you had tripped, or got attacked again. But the way you were slumped over yourself, and on the ground, it didn't look like either. I tried to get your attention by shaking you. You're body seemed lifeless, just like a rag doll," Karla recalled. 

"'Oh no he's dead!' I told myself. I froze, waiting for the blue sparks, but they never came. 'Ok, maybe he's not dead. He just passed out.' I thought. I looked around madly. Paralysis is part of this game, so maybe you were paralyzed. But you hadn't been attacked and there were no other players in sight. My katana was out, I was terrified I'd have to fight on my own and protect you too." 

"I couldn't stay there. I put my katana away and grabbed you over my shoulder. I didn't even consider that I may not be able to lift you, but lift you I did. I backtracked the way we came in. I was bee-lining it to the abandoned farmhouse. I could see it, maybe two hundred meters away. I was going to make it. That's when something grabbed my leg and I tripped and I fell with you on top of me."

"A large toad had wrapped it's tongue around my ankle and was trying to pull me to it's gaping mouth. I was pinned to the ground by your body, but turns out it's what saved me from being sucked in. The toad couldn't pull me in and had to let go. I got out from under you, just as the toad tried a bite attack and it managed to grab you by the mouth. That gave me the few seconds I needed to retaliate. My katana was out and I attacked it from the side."

"I attacked as much as I could, taking quite a lot of damage, all the while trying to lure it away from you. When my health hit yellow, I ran to where you were lying and grabbed you again. I don't know how I managed to pick you up. Honestly, I think I half dragged you. I got to the farmhouse and burst inside falling on top of you. I picked myself up as quickly as I could and drew my katana and faced the doorway."

"I stood there for who knows how long, but the toad had given up. I closed the door and collapsed next to you. You still weren't moving. I tried to wake you but nothing seemed to work: I shook you, I pushed you, I ... er ... hit you." 

Karla looked at me worriedly. 

"You were not responding, I was desperate to bring you back. I was trying anything I could," Karla apologized. 

I grabbed her hand and held it tight, and nodded.

"My health was low; yours wasn't very high either. I only had two health potion left so I shoved one into your mouth and I took the other one. That got us both back up into the green. I probably would have needed another to top off my health, but you had the other potions in your inventory. I couldn't get at them."

"The farmhouse wasn't the safest place to be so I started walking towards town. I had to carry you, there was no other way. It was the most tedious walk I had ever done. I couldn't move fast and I was constantly afraid a creature would come too close to the road and attack. But it wasn't mobs I came across: I was concentrating on keeping you on my back that I never heard them coming till they called out."

"Get her!"


	38. Patience

"Two players spotted me and immediately drew their weapons. With you on my back I was an easy target. They came at me fast and I just had time to draw my katana. The first player rushed me and slammed me with his shield. I blocked it but I had to drop you. He charged at me again with his shield, pushing me away. He stood between me and you. The other player rushed to your body and all I could do was cry out 'Don't hurt him!' "

"That got their attention, the player that attacked me took a defensive stance, 'Stay where you are.' he ordered. He turned his head slightly to the side and addressed the other player. 'How is he, is he alive?' he asked 'Seems like it, it's hard to tell what's wrong with him, but his health is fine.' the other player told him. My attacker turned back to me 'What do you want with this player, what did you do to him?' he asked"

"I tried to tell them that you needed help and that I had to get back to town. 'Put down your weapon and explain yourself.' he commanded. I sheathed my katana and I showed him my empty hands. If they had wanted to kill me, I probably would have been dead already. I told them what had happened and that we were in a party together. They thought I was a player killer. They hadn't bothered to look at my cursor."

"They were kind enough to help me get you back to town once the misunderstanding was cleared up," Karla said. 

"Wait a minute," I interrupted. "They just offered this out of the kindness of their hearts?" I asked. 

Karla fidgeted sheepishly. 

"Well I sort of got them to agree to help me," she lied. 

I raised my eyebrows.

"Oh really?" I chided. 

"Ok! Ok! I got on their case. I told them, that they accused me without knowing and attacked me without reason. I went on about how hard it was in your state. They were quite apologetic after that, so I told them I would forgive them if they carried you back to town and into our room."

"So that took care of getting you to a safe zone. Also now you were away from prying eyes. I don't know how I would have explained it to anyone who asked, it's not like I knew what was going on anyway. I sat on my bed waiting for something to happen, you'd been out for a while now. It was like being in a hospital room after an accident waiting for the patient to come out of a coma."

"I asked myself why you were in such a state. I realized that was a pointless question, I would never really find out a reason for your state, or for our being here in the first place, for that matter. But at least I could try to find out what was causing your coma. I certainly wasn't going to get any information just sitting there. So I sent you a message that I'd be back in an hour, in case you'd wake up before I got back."

"I headed for the marketplace, a lot of players hung out there and maybe someone had an insight on your condition. I asked around and got all kinds of answers. I even got ridiculous suggestions on how to wake you. Someone said you were a deep sleeper, another said you were drunk. At the opposite end some said you were dead and didn't blow up because of a problem with the program. One even suggested that you would awaken as a zombie."

"It's only once I started asking about it in the pub that I got a better answer. Most players couldn't be bothered with me until someone said it reminded him of the people who had passed out in waves after we were all trapped in the game. Other players then chimed in: 'He's lost his network connection', or 'they're transferring him to another hospital', or 'maybe there's a power failure'. One player made my blood run cold. 'If he doesn't reconnect within an hour, he'll be dead.' I ran out of the pub all the way to the inn."

"You were still there. Lying on your back, as if asleep. Then it sunk in: though you weren't dead, it was only a matter of time. You had passed an hour already, any minute you'd just vanish. I was shaking all over. I sat on the side of your bed and held on to you. Every minute was tedious but I wasn't going to let go till the very end." 

"Then you suddenly awoke, sitting straight up in the bed flailing your arms. I fell backward on the floor. The rest you know," Karla concluded. 

"You were awake as if nothing had happened. It was the weirdest thing I'd experienced up to now and it had seriously freaked me out. That's why I was so drained after you told me what had happened. Even if you were out for just over an hour," Karla said. 

"Wait a minute. That was only an hour? I thought I'd been out for days." I said as I suddenly realized how much time I had actually been out. "That's amazing, I guess I really had no notion of time while I was out. Well, it's a good thing for you. You didn't have to worry too long. My guess would be that I was disconnected. I wish I knew why," I wondered.

"It scares me Wolf," Karla admitted. "It scares me that no matter what we do, we're so vulnerable. There's no one to turn to, no higher power to appeal to, no law to claim was violated. The game can decide to kill us anytime it sees fit. And with a madman controlling it there's no telling what he'll do. I hope we can clear this game soon," she sighed.

"It's strange. I use to feel safe online, it was the escape from reality. You could do epic battles and no one would get hurt in reality. The game was just that: a game. But here, the environment can kill you, monsters can kill you, the system could kill if it wanted to, even players can take you out. It's enough to go insane, I've seen it happen," Karla said.

"You'll be fine." I cut in, "You're level-headed and smart, it would take a lot to break you. I've told you before: you don't give yourself enough credit. Anyways, we don't have any control over the game, all we can do is make the most of it and face what's thrown at us head on." I told Karla, but in some way I was telling myself at the same time. "I say we don't give up. I know I won't, no matter what we have to face." I asserted. 

Karla nodded and said:

"Neither will I"


	39. Ravenheim

"Let's change floors again!" Karla suggested.

"Aw, I was just about to paint the room and I'll have to cancel the curtains I ordered. Next time you do the decorating," I teased pretending to be insulted.

"You're weird! And yes you can be sure that I'll do the decorating if I ever get the chance," she replied.

I was slightly taken aback that she wasn't entirely kidding.

"Seriously, do you want to change floors, or not?" Karla insisted.

"That's a really good question," I responded.

We had been in this medieval town for a while now. It was a comfortable floor for me. It was raw, clear cut, and predictable, which made it safe. It was really good for leveling, and we had put it to good use. We'd honed our skills and managed to make a nice amount of col. We had also upgraded our equipment as we leveled, not changing it drastically, but improving it and adding little extras here and there.

My battle axe now had a substantial damage bonus and an increased chance of stumbling my opponent. My armour comprised of more plates on the arms and legs riveted to my leather undershirt. I also had shoulder guards and a larger breastplate. It increased my confidence as it gave me just enough power to turn the tide in a battle.

Karla had kept the general setup of her outfit. The changes she had made were mostly on the quality of the leather in her armor and the fact that it seemed to fit her even better than it had before, it really looked tailor-made for her. I had noticed that other players would sometimes pay attention when they saw Karla. At first I thought it was because she was a girl, and being a male dominated game, it didn't surprise me. But it turns out she looked really good in her get-up, appealing in its usefulness and aesthetics.

"What are you starring at?" Karla asked.

I hadn't realized it, but I was looking straight at her.

"I ah ... hum ... I was lost in my thoughts," I stuttered trying to avoid the subject.

"You were starring as if my armour was out of place," she said.

"No. No. You look good. I ... I mean your armour is fine," I babbled.

I felt I was blushing wildly from embarrassment, and hoped Karla had not noticed. I don't know what I would have said if she had decided to pursue the subject further, but she was kind enough to ignore the redness of my cheeks and my sudden speech impediment. Her mouth did curl slightly, thus giving me the impression that she was mocking me.

"How about we do a little floor hopping?" I suggested.

Karla glanced at me quizzically.

"You know, just teleport to a random floor and look around for ten minutes to see if we like it. If we don't, we just get back on the teleporter and choose another town. If we find a floor to our liking we can rent a room at one of the inns and start exploring," I explained.

"Sir! Are you proposing I abandon my place here and follow you on a trip around the world?" Karla said as she pointed to herself with her hand just below her neck.

I smiled at her high society ladylike acting. I really liked the way she did it, so I played along.

"Madam, this trip requires your presence, and I will not take no for an answer," I proclaimed as I got up.

I bowed slightly and extended my hand to her.

"Shall we?" I proposed.

Karla took my hand with the tips of her fingers and got up in one fluid motion.

"Lead on!" she commanded.

* * *

Floor hopping turned out to be a lot of fun. Each town we ended up in had a different style or structure. Some sported large stone buildings, great archways and paved streets while others were seemingly carved out of the very rock. Some had a medieval feel, others appeared far more modern and everything in between. Each floor also had its own season. As we went to different floors the weather could change drastically: one floor it was warm and lush, the next one the ground was covered in snow, some with trees bearing fruit, while others the trees were in bloom.

We took in these season changes and city styles as if we were on a sightseeing tour. Spending our time looking at the places and the people and generally wandering around. We also walked to the edge of the town's safe zone to take a good look at the surrounding countryside. The views were on many floors quite breathtaking: from rolling countryside to impenetrable mountain ranges. Deserts, forests, swamps, lakes, it was all here.

I felt the bitter sweetness of what was being offered: the equivalent of a fantastically decorated prison. It's a strange feeling to be trapped in a world you would normally want to spend all your free time in. I comforted myself in knowing that I wasn't trapped by this intricate and beautiful world, but by a madman who just wouldn't let me leave.

We finally ended up on the eighteenth floor in the town of Ravenheim, situated on one side of a large river and connected to the opposite bank by a wide bridge. Barges glided lazily on the river, guided by NPC merchants wanting to sell their wares at the huge dockside marketplace. Buildings, up to three stories high with large sloping roofs, spread out along the river side and a little inland. Most top floors were white washed, framed in dark wood with diagonal beams cutting the white spaces into many right angled triangles.

The weather had a late summer feel, with warm days and cool nights. The pleasant weather was reflected in the lush vegetation and seemingly fertile surrounding land. A patchwork of vineyards covered the hillsides just outside of town, with grapevines that were ripe with their fruit, which was incidentally a boon for artisan players who were into wine making and juices of various kinds. The barge riding merchants brought in all sorts of wares typical of early harvests with summer fruits and vegetables.

Further out, the surrounding forests were dense with vegetation and probably filled with mobs of all kinds. It would have meant death to inexperienced players wandering off into this particular wilderness. The mobs had many ways to stay hidden in these woods. But this was the eighteenth floor; only those strong enough or foolish enough would venture out.

This forest was just difficult enough for us to make our hunting worthwhile. We wanted to test the level of the mobs before deciding if we would make this floor our new home base. So we ventured out a little, just off one of the roads, looking for prey. We came across a pack of wolves, about five of them, surrounding a tree. Something was out of place as they growled at it and every few seconds one of them tried to climb it. That's when we heard a voice higher up in the tree:

"Someone help me?"


	40. Wolves

Someone was stuck in the tree that the wolves surrounded. I turned to Karla who just shrugged her shoulders and said something about hitting two birds with one stone. I guess we would be doing a little hunting and helping someone out of a tight spot. We pulled out our weapons and waited for at least one wolf to be off its guard before attacking.

Spontaneously two wolves tried to climb the tree; that was our cue. With these two not paying attention to their surroundings, I rushed in and did a wide swing attack which hit the remaining three wolves. Two were knocked to the ground but the third only took a step back and crouched to prepare a leap attack. I knew about that attack pattern, it was common in hunter-type creatures of medium size, so I was ready to parry that attack. The wolf only managed to bite into the handle of my battle axe. Using the wolf's momentum, I rolled on my back pulling it clear over me, throwing it to the ground. I completed my roll and stood up. I then jumped towards the wolf swinging my axe down hard.

Karla held back to see the effect of my attack on the wolves before engaging. As soon as the wolves fell down she charged in before they became aware of her presence. She stabbed the first wolf multiple times not giving it any chance to fight back. She didn't even wait for it to explode into shards of light before slashing the second one. 

The two that were busy with the tree now turned their attention on us, well on me to be precise. Karla was still engaged with her second wolf and at that moment they seemed not to care about her. They quickly moved to either side of me. 

"They're trying to flank me," I worried because my fighting style left me vulnerable on the side that my battle axe wasn't. 

I could have probably defended myself against both but only if I didn't attack. I would have to wait till Karla finished her wolf before being able to do anything. That was only true if there was only the two of us. With a ruffle of leaves, and a high pitched war cry a girl came down, with a sword skill activated, on the wolf closest to the tree. The wolf went down, spread eagle, with a dagger in its back. The girl grabbed the wolf and tried to hold on. 

"I'll keep it busy, get the other one!" she yelled. 

Without hesitation I swung at the other wolf. It took four solid hits to destroy it. The girl struggled with the wolf as it tossed her around. It managed to throw her off its back and quickly turned around and attacked her. She instinctively raised her left arm to block it. But that just gave the wolf an easy place to bite. 

"Ah! Get off of me!" she cried in vain. 

The wolf had a solid hold on her arm and was viciously moving its head to cause more and more damage. The girl's health points were draining fast. Panicking, she tried to stab it with her dagger but wasn't letting the sword skills charge. I charged my sword skill and let it do its work. The wolf exploded a moment later. The girl was still flailing her dagger wildly, her eyes were closed and tears were streaming from her eyes. 

"You can stop now," I said. 

She stopped moving and opened her eyes. 

"You've got to wait for the skills to charge if you want to be effective," I scolded.

"Did you do that?" she said in reference to the remaining sparks as they faded. 

I nodded as I put my battle axe on my back. She quickly got up, ran to me and hugged me by the waist. 

"You're my hero! You saved me! Thank you!" she beamed, hugging me and resting her face on my breastplate. 

I just stood there surprised, with my arms in the air. I hadn't had time to put them down after I stored my battle axe. I looked up and saw Karla a few meters away, leaning on one foot with her arms crossed, and looking slightly annoyed. 

"I ... ah ... you can let go now ...um ..." I suggested.

"Opal! My name is Opal," she chirped. 

She gave me a little squeeze before letting go. 

"It's a good thing you came by. I can usually handle the mobs on this floor, but a pack is too hard for a single person, so I climbed the tree in the hope that they would give up and I could head back to town. But they never gave up. I've been stuck up there for two days," she explained. "I bet if we partied together we'd be much more effective. It could be my way of paying you back for your troubles. What do you say?" she proposed. 

Karla coughed as if to clear her throat. Opal turned around, surprised to see her there. 

"Oh, hello. I didn't see you there. Can I help you?" she said curtly. 

Karla raised her eyebrows at Opal's words. 

"Well for one thing, you were hugging my partner," Karla retorted. 

"Opal this is Karla, a friend of mine," I sighed. 

Opal just looked at me waiting for something. 

"And your name is?" she asked.

"Wolf," I said with a little hesitation. 

This girl was making me feel very uncomfortable. 

"I like that name. It's nice and short like mine," she approved. 

She flashed a large warm smile at me then turned towards Karla. 

"So you're ... Karla right? That's a ... quaint name. I hope we can be friends," Opal said, though I sensed a certain restraint on her part. 

Karla looked at me and rolled her eyes. 

"Your dagger's just a beginner level one, it's not a particularly powerful weapon for this floor, you should have at least upgraded it," Karla indicated. 

"Oh this? Ha, ha, you're so silly. This is just a weapon I had in my inventory as a backup," Opal mocked.

She promptly went to search the base of the tree. She grabbed the end of a long stick, and pulled it out of the underbrush. 

"Ah, here it is. I dropped my spear climbing the tree. This is what I usually fight with," she proclaimed and proceeded to twirl it once and show it off.

An awkward silence fell between us, Karla was not impressed and I didn't know what to make of Opal. 

"Well, now that you're safe, I guess you can make it back safely by yourself. Or will you need an escort?" Karla said. 

I sensed a little condescension in her voice as the town was in fact quite close by. Opal shook her head. 

"I didn't think so. We'll be on our way, as we have some things to do. Are you coming Wolf?" Kala pressed. 

As I followed Karla, Opal called out:

"See you later Wolf."


	41. Settling in

"She seems like a nice person," I said nonchalantly. 

"Oh yeah. And very, very friendly," Karla chimed in. "You two seemed to hit it off wonderfully," Karla said exaggerating and emphasizing the word 'wonderfully'. 

"I didn't do anything, she's the one that came on so strongly," I said defensively. 

Karla whipped around and put her hands on her hips. 

"You didn't seem to mind. I'd even say you were enjoying it," Karla retorted.

"I just said she seemed nice. What I mean is that it surprises me that she is out here by herself, as in, not in a guild and not partying with anyone. A nice person can usually get along with other people, and eventually get invited to join in an adventure, and even make friends. I'm sure there are a lot of people who would party with her, she'd simply have to ask," I explained.

"It's not that simple Wolf. We've met different people in here and they're not all nice and friendly. Some just lack basic social skills, but others can be downright mean and abusive. For the girls it's even worse. There's so few of us that we're easy to spot and become a target for some of the more shady personalities. It's ironic, you'd think that we'd have the choice of which players we would party with, and some do, but the rest of us are simply an afterthought, picked to join only as a last resort. It's not because we're in a game that people act differently. True nature always has a way of surfacing," Karla Said.

"Ok, I get it. Maybe she decided to go solo," I said but I couldn't really believe myself. 

I shook off any thoughts I had of Opal and looked at the area around us. 

"Are we still good for some hunting?" I asked Karla. 

"Yeah, I guess so," Karla said shaking her head to clear her thoughts. "We can go in a little more, but I think the creatures here seem just about the right difficulty. We'll have to stay alert, there are so many places where the creatures can hide in this forest," Karla worried.

We spent a good part of the day in a fairly small area. The creatures on this floor were more of a grind than those we were used to on lower floors. Many of the animals were simply higher leveled versions of those we had encountered before, wolves notably, but also bears and foxes, and of course a fair share of less savory creatures like kobolds, pixies, and woodland monsters.

It turned out to be a good thing that we didn't go in too far. Wandering too deep into this forest made you lose your bearings. We were out of sight of the road only for a little while, just the time it took us to defeat a couple of kobold scouts. As a result we lost the road, we couldn't tell which way we were pointing. It took us a good twenty minutes before we stumbled on a path from which we could see the edge of town. We were going to need something to help us get our bearings.

A little shaken, we made our way back to town to find a place to stay and explore the shops that could supply us with healing items, and other consumables. We found the usual mix of armor, weapon, food, and general goods merchants, but among the general wares a floor specific item was available: a compass. It not only told you your orientation, it also kept your map aligned, that way we'd go in a straight line instead of round in circles. We'd have to use it practically all the time when traveling to prevent getting lost.

"Let's each buy one," I suggested. 

"Why, only one person needs to lead, it seems like a waste of money," Karla objected. 

"I don't care. What if we get separated? This way we can each make it back. We already nearly got lost. As soon as we go deeper it'll just get worse. I have a feeling we're going to need them." I reasoned. Karla shrugged her shoulders and purchased one for herself and I did the same. 

Map data of the floor was also available, so we picked that up. Mostly the main roads, the small villages and the river itself were detailed. The path to the dungeon was also indicated, but generally the rest of the floor only showed hilly forests everywhere else. Probably good for hunting as few players had mapped any other areas. On the other hand, not all players were willing to share what they knew, especially if they'd found good hunting grounds.

"We need to find a place to stay before it gets dark," I said. 

"Oh! I saw a sign near the waterfront I want to look at. Let's go now," Karla proposed. 

A movement caught my eye and I turned my head to look down one of the streets. 

"Wolf, do you still need something in the market? " Karla asked. 

"No. I just thought I saw something ... never mind," I said as I couldn't put my finger on it anyways. 

We went to the waterfront and saw the sign Karla was talking about. It read : Riverside Inn. Not a spectacular name, just clear and to the point. The one that designed it simply mustn't have given it too much thought. In contrast the building was quite attractive, with lots of windows decorated with flowers. The roof had lovely carved eaves and the door had polished brass hinges and latch. 

The inside had a cozy and welcoming atmosphere. The common room walls were painted with floral patterns and leaves of all sorts. The tables were adorned with lace edged tablecloths, and the chairs each had a cushion. A large fireplace set i the wall, surrounded by four chairs, completed its inviting feel.

"Two rooms please," Karla requested from the NPC innkeeper. 

I stared at the pop up window that was waiting for my reply. We had spent so much time sharing a room that it didn't occur to me that we would take separate rooms. 

"I just thought we might like to each have a little privacy, just being friends and all," Karla said. 

She must have noticed my disconcerted look. I nodded my head and accepted the purchase.

The inn's food was of good quality, but also a little pricey. I opted to save my col and eat a simple meal of bread and cheese. Karla's choice was a meat skewer drenched in a sweet sauce. There was no need to sit while we had supper so we wandered through the market place as we ate. We did a little window shopping, chit-chatting about what upgrades we wanted to get next. 

"I'll cut in early and we could do some hunting early tomorrow. That way I might be able to pay for some of this stuff," Karla said. 

"Ok. I'll sit at the fireplace a little while and turn in a little later," I said. 

We headed back to the inn and with a little wave, Karla headed up to her room, and I headed to the common room to relax a little. A few players were at the tables discussing the pleasures and pains of their situation. Some simply sat and stared blankly, spacing out after a day doing whatever it was that they did. 

The fireplace chairs were empty. I sat down and leaned back with my feet stretched out in front of me. I stared into the crackling fire losing myself in thoughts of battles and rewards that come with them. I did not hear the footsteps of the person that came up behind me and was startled when she asked:

"Mind if I join you?"


	42. Opal

Opal was standing next to one of the empty chairs near the fireplace. She smiled warmly and her eyes gleamed in the firelight.

"Mind if I join you?" she repeated.

I sat up straighter and moved my hand to invite her to sit. There were after all four chairs at the fireplace, it wasn't my place to refuse her request. She sat on a chair next to mine and put her hands up towards the fire, warming them in the virtual heat.

"Would you like some tea? I ordered some but they always bring too much for just one person," Opal said as a waitress arrived holding a small tray with a tea pot and two cups.

"Sure, why not," I said.

I thought it was kind of her to offer it to me, and it might have been rude of me to refuse. She poured a cup and handed it to me. She poured herself a cup and set the teapot on one of the remaining chairs. She gently put her hand on my arm.

"Wolf, I wanted to thank you for saving me earlier. That was very generous of you," Opal started.

I smiled in response. Opal's eyes gleamed brighter.

"Not many players offer themselves that way. A lot of them couldn't care less. But you fought for me, you got rid of the wolves, you kept me safe. I hope there's something I can do for you, to repay you in some way," Opal said.

"Hey, it's okay, I couldn't let someone just die without at least trying to help. It's easy to get in over our head. The wilderness is so unforgiving. It is nice of you to be so appreciative," I said. "Now, just stay away from wolves and you should be fine," I joked.

Opal laughed heartily. Her laugh was inviting and made me smile.

"Why were you out there on your own anyway?" I asked, remembering her earlier predicament.

"Oh I do that a lot, and usually I'm fine on my own. But I was caught off guard this time. The patterns of creatures change on this floor, instead of two wolves you get five, or one day you're fighting kobolds in an area and the next day that area has trolls. The difficulty goes up and down a lot. It would certainly be easier if I had some help," Opal sighed.

"That's precisely what I mean. Why go alone? There must be a ton of players that would like to party with you. If your level is similar to mine I'm sure there's a guild out there that would gladly take you in. And ... well ... I don't want you to take this the wrong way or anything ... being a girl, in a male dominated environment ... aren't the guys interested in having you in their group?" I said trying not to sound either insulting or too direct.

I felt my throat go dry and I took a nervous sip of my tea. Opal bit her bottom lip.

"They haven't shown me much respect. I'm either a bother or a prize. 'I'm sorry we're looking for more muscle in the group.' that's the type of reply I get when I try to join a party, so I get turned down a lot. And in town, it's the opposite, they hit on me and vie for my attention. None of them has shown sufficient respect or any sign of actually caring for my well-being. At least not until today that is," Opal indicated.

The fireplace must have gotten hotter, because I felt my cheeks get quite warm. Opal tilted her head to the side and down a little away from me.

"You seem to be the type of guy that goes out hunting a lot and I like to go hunting too. I was planning to go out into the wilderness tomorrow. Maybe you were also planning to go out into the wilderness tomorrow too. And if that's the case, since we have similar plans, would you be free to go with me by any chance?" Opal asked as she turned her head to face me.

The request came as a surprise, and I couldn't come up with a good reason to refuse on the spur of the moment.

"Oh, okay," I replied.

Opal put her hands together and smiled. Then she opened her menu and sent me a friend request. I accepted it. It's easier to form a party with people on your friends list.

"I'll let Karla know in the morning. We can leave after breakfast," I said.

Opal made a sour face then looked away.

"Is something wrong?" I asked

"N-No of course not. It's ... it's the tea, it has a funny flavour," Opal sputtered.

She got up off her chair rather quickly, nearly spilling her tea.

"Well I guess I will see you in the morning then. Good night," Opal said.

I didn't have time to say anything before she turned and walked right out of the inn. I guessed this wasn't the inn she was spending the night in. It struck me as a little odd to have come here just for tea. I stayed by fireplace a little longer slowly sipping my tea.

"I don't know what Opal finds wrong with the tea, it tastes fine to me. I guess she wasn't really in the mood for tea," I thought to myself.

My mind wandered to our plans for the next day. Having an extra player in our party meant we would be more powerful. It would give us an extra edge in our encounters and permit a more solid defense.

"I hope Karla doesn't mind another player joining us for a while," I wondered.

* * *

"You what?" Karla blurted.

"I invited Opal to join us on our hunting. She certainly knows more about this floor than we do, she can guide us to the good spots. It will mean more hits for us and less damage. We could take on stronger creatures that offer greater rewards," I explained.

Karla was glaring at me, her arms taut along her sides and making fists with her hands.

"You don't seem happy about it. I thought it was a good Idea," I said surprised by her reaction.

"Why on earth would you invite some random girl to our group? You didn't even ask me about it how I feel about it." Karla was fuming. "You don't know this girl from a hole in the wall. What if she's not safe? What if she plans on killing us and taking all our belongings from us? Have you considered that maybe she could steal something from me?" Karla complained.

"What could she possibly steal?" I asked indignantly.

Karla clenched her teeth and pursed her lips. She screwed up her face as if she was holding her breath, she looked like she would explode. But instead she crossed her arms and turned away.

"Nothing. If you can't ... forget it, there's nothing," Karla grumbled.

"Look, I told her we would be hunting today and she asked to come. I don't know of a good reason to refuse some help. Things don't always have to go your way. Why are you making such a big deal out of this?" I argued.

Karla's reaction was getting to me and for some reason that I couldn't explain, and for some reason, I was taking it personally.

"I don't like her!" Karla screamed.

"Well I do!" I yelled back.

Karla's mouth opened but no words came out. I stood up and leaned on the table on my fists

"Karla, we're going hunting today, and Opal is coming along. I'm sorry if it's not to your liking but that's how I'm going to have it today. We meet in front of the inn in one hour," I insisted.

I pushed off from the table and walked towards the door. As I opened the door Karla said:

"I won't be there."


	43. Forest

I was pacing in front of the inn, trying to let go of my frustration. Karla had somehow managed to profoundly irritate me. It was the first time that I had been that angry with her, or with anyone else for that matter. I was grumbling to myself not looking where I was going when Opal showed up. I turned around just as she was about to tap me on the shoulder.

"Yikes!" Opal gasped as I slammed into her and she fell to the ground.

It took me a moment for my mind to clear and realize what had happened. Opal was sprawled on the ground looking rather upset. I offered my hand to help her up but I turned my face away out of embarrassment. Her skirt had flipped up in a very unladylike like manner. Opal noticed me and she let out a high pitched squeak as she quickly got up and adjusted her clothes. I chuckled a little, not really knowing why.

"Hey! Quit laughing. That was embarrassing," Opal said sheepishly.

She continued to adjust her clothes.

"I guess it was my fault that you didn't see me though. I should have called out just before reaching you. I thought I could surprise you, as you seemed lost in your thoughts, I thought it would be easy. It turns out my idea backfired on me, I'm the one who got the surprise," Opal joked.

Opal looked around, then looked back at the inn.

"Your friend is late. I was hoping we could advance a fair bit before lunch. Did she have something to do first?" Opal inquired.

"She's not coming," I said flatly.

Opal's eyes widened.

"Oh! that's ... that's a shame, I guess. But that means we can leave now, right?" Opal said.

She didn't seem entirely disappointed that there would only be the two of us to handle the mobs. It was going to be harder than I had expected, but at least it didn't seem to affect Opal's mood. In fact she seemed quite cheerful. I on the other hand was still a little annoyed. I sincerely wished Karla had joined us and I felt bad that I was leaving her behind. On the other hand her attitude would have put a damper on the day that I didn't want to have to deal with.

"It's a good day for hunting and it's too bad for Karla if she ends up missing it. There will be other days," I thought to myself as I tried to rationalize the situation.

Opal made a quick check of all the things that we needed for our trek.

"You've got potions? Teleport crystal? An extra weapon?" Opal asked trying to catch me forgetting something.

All the while she was smiling and humming. She was creating a joyful atmosphere that was relaxing and inviting. I calmed down while going along with her questions.

"Good, let's go then. I'll lead for a bit if you want," Opal said as she started off towards the center of town. "We'll take the road into the hills. Usually the riverside is the safest but too many people hunt there so the pickings are slim. We can get more prey after we cross the vineyards, which are worth checking out; if you harvest them you can get sweet grapes. Something special to go with lunch," Opal explained.

Going with someone the first time I would have insisted on a safer route. I seemed to have let my guard down with Opal. So I didn't object to her suggestions, it's not like I had a plan anyway. Any hunting spot was good for me, and Opal looked like she knew what she was doing. So after spending some twenty minutes, gathering sour grapes just to get a sweet grape bunch each, we took out our weapons and headed into the forest.

* * *

Opal knew how to hold her own in the wilderness. She had partied before and clearly knew what she was doing.

"Switch!" I cried after stunning the bear we were fighting.

Opal came in at top speed, crouching low with her spear pointed at the bear. At the last minute, she leaped up and drove the spear into the bear's chest. As the bear fell backwards she turned her body and planted her feet on the bear. She pushed off, pulling the spear out of the bear's chest, and landed next to me. A moment later the bear exploded. I whistled as the blue shards dissipated. She smiled satisfied with her move.

"I can only do that with the larger creatures. It's my latest skill and I haven't had much chance to try it out. I really like how it performs," Opal said proudly.

She looked at the pop up window in front of her.

"Grrr! I only got some col. Did you get anything good?" Opal asked.

"Same as you. Next time we'll get some better stuff. It's not like you're suffering, we've gotten a lot of loot already," I said.

I looked up at my time display.

"We should be getting back it's getting late. I don't know about you, but I'd rather not be out here at night. I don't want to find out what kind of undead or night predator might roam these woods. My perception skill isn't high enough to see at night," I said.

"We're too far in to make it back before it gets dark." Opal stated.

I stood there with my mouth agape. Opal frowned a little.

"I'm sorry but I thought you knew? Hey don't worry, we can get to a safe zone fairly quickly. There's a little village near here, it's just up the road. We can head there now if you want," Opal said in a comforting voice.

I guess I must have looked quite worried. Opal led the way to the road that went to the next village. I looked down the road toward where the village would be and then looked the other way towards the town and huffed.

"It's a shame to not make it back to town, I already have a room reserved there. But there's no way I'm hunting at night without knowing exactly what's out here," I admitted.

Opal turned and looked at me waiting for me to decide. I smiled to Opal and she smiled back. She offered her hand and I took it.

"C'mon, it's not far. It'll just be one more place you'll get to visit. There's a cute little place that has a room we can use there. And the food they serve is tasty, not cheap mind you. But after a long day, I think you'll appreciate it," Opal said.

With Opal leading the way we soon made it to the little village.

She was right, the supper was good and the place was nice and cozy. It only had one table with four chairs and a fairly small fireplace. It felt more like a home than an inn. Opal went to reserve some rooms while I finished my supper. I took the opportunity to write Karla a message. She was mad at me when I left and I felt bad not coming back to town right away.

_Karla,_   
_We couldn't make it back to town before it got dark._   
_We did get to a small village, it's a safe zone, so we'll spend the night there._   
_I hope to get back to town late in the morning._   
_Wolf_

A minute later I got a reply back

_Wolf,_   
_Ok._   
_When you get back, we need to talk._   
_Please be careful, and not just with the mobs._   
_Karla_

I read the message twice. I couldn't figure out what, other than mobs, could possibly be a threat out here. We had met shady characters in the past, who tried to gain some advantage at our expense. But I hadn't come across anyone like that on this floor. Also we were going to spend the night in a safe zone, it would be impossible to cause us any harm. I didn't have time to send a question back before Opal finished with the innkeeper. She looked a little embarrassed.

"I asked the NPC about getting a room for the evening. He said that they only had one; not just one available, but they literally have a single room to rent. I took it anyways because there isn't anywhere else we can go. I hope you don't mind sharing," Opal said.

"I guess there's not much we can do about it. Let's check it out, and we'll decide how we'll arrange things," I suggested.

I didn't think it was such a big deal, but Opal seemed relieved and happy with my reaction. We went up the stairs to the only door on the second floor.

"Oh!" I said as I looked into the room and it dawned on me.

"There's only one bed!"


	44. One Room

"Ooo. This is nice. It has a nice view and the furniture is better than what I'm used to. It's quite spacious don't you find?" she asked batting her eyes.

I stood dumbfounded for a moment, Opal did not seem to clue in to the lack of a second bed. She seemed more caught up in the rooms layout, furnishings, configuration and colour. But then again it was easy to get distracted, the room was noticeably prettier than any I had been in previously. The round table was covered with a lace trimmed tablecloth, and a large vase with flowers was set in the middle. The carved and decorative chairs were cushioned and sported tasteful colors and intricate patterns. The bed had a quilted comforter and sported two pillows for extra comfort. All in all, a little gem of a place, lost in the middle of a floor that few ever visit now.

Opal went over to the bed and squeezed one of the pillows. I saw her look down, close her eyes and swallow hard.

"After a hard day like that, it would be wrong to not let you sleep properly. Since there's only one bed, we ... um ... we could ... share it?" Opal squeaked.

Her voice cracking at the end of the sentence.

"But only if you want to," she added reluctantly as she twisted her hands together.

"You can have the bed, I'll just sleep on the floor, you've earned it for being my guide all day. It would be rude of me to impose," I offered.

Opal screwed up her face in disgust and disappointment.

"Hey don't worry, the floor's not that bad. It's not like I'll be sore the next day or anything the system sees to that. I'll just take one of the pillows and I'll be fine," I decided.

"Um ... ah ... ok," she said.

I think she was relieved but I really couldn't tell. I put away my armor and grabbed a pillow and one of the covers off the bed. Turns out the bed had three! It would have been nice to sleep in that bed, it really looked comfortable, but the floor would have to do. I laid down with the cover over me and the pillow under my head.

"Good night Opal, and thank you for the day," I said.

"Good night Wolf," Opal huffed.

I felt a certain sadness in her voice. I hoped I hadn't said anything out of place or rude. She'd been real nice with me all day.

"If Karla gets to know Opal more I think they could become friends," I imagined.

I felt a little guilty that Karla didn't come adventuring with us. I chased the thought and quickly drifted to sleep.

* * *

 

Waking up on a floor is always disconcerting. Even knowing that I wouldn't feel it soon after I got up, it was not an Ideal place to sleep. If you slept anywhere but in a bed, in this game, you'd be stiff after waking up. I was no exception and I tried to relieve the soreness by turning on my back as I woke up. I was suddenly aware that something was beside me that hadn't been there the night before.

"Good morning," Opal hummed.

She was lying on her side on the floor beside me under the cover I had put down the night before. I sat up suddenly and moved away.

"I, oh, ah, um, what, no ..." I babbled trying to gather my thoughts.

"Did you fall out of bed?" I asked as I stared at Opal in shock.

This was a ridiculous question, in fact it was impossible to fall out of bed. Asleep you couldn't move, the system prevented you. But being the morning I wasn't thinking clearly.

"No. Of course not," she said as she sat up.

She looked away from me and bit her bottom lip. She seemed to be thinking. I tried to come up with a reason, some were quite inappropriate and I tried to dismiss them. No matter what I did I couldn't put two and two together. I looked at her to try and get an answer. I felt really nervous but I didn't quite know why.

"I was cold last night ... well I felt cold anyway. I thought it would be warmer next to you. I was going to ask you to ... never mind. I decided I would just lean up against you on the floor. I didn't really want to wake you and I fell asleep before I even had the chance to ask if it was okay. I hope you don't mind," Opal said.

Her voice was low and her words seemed chosen. I wasn't sure why but I felt she was trying to hide something, not enough for me to confront her with it though.

"Ok then. I suggest we head back to town right after breakfast. Since you paid for the room, it'll be my treat," I said with a smile.

Opal accepted the offer. I managed to send a note to Karla, just before we left, that we'd be back around noon. We finished breakfast quickly and managed to be on the road twenty minutes later. We made our way down the road, handling the creatures that insisted on getting in our way. Opal seemed more interested in talking than taking on mobs, which was fine with me as we would get back to town faster.

Most of our conversation evolved around the game itself and the equipment we had managed to gather. Typical of gamers we described our equipment as if we had invented it. Opal was particularly proud of her spear which was a monster drop that according to her gave her a two level advantage. We didn't see the morning go by and as the forest made way to vineyards the town came into view.

"Well that was fun. I've got to remember to pace myself if I'm going to hunt out here. There's still a big chunk of this floor to explore. You've been a great help Opal, this is definitely not a solo floor. You probably want to sell the stuff you picked up so I don't want to keep you too long," I said.

"I wouldn't mind going again sometime, just you and me. I think we could really explore this place and get to know each other better," Opal proposed looking straight into my eyes.

She glanced momentarily towards the town, then looked back at me. She looked worried but determined at the same time. I took a step back but she quickly closed the gap between us and grabbed me by the collar.

And planted her lips on mine.


	45. Torment

I stood there straight as a board, my eyes as big as dinner plates. Lost for what to do, not knowing what had brought this on. I stayed like that a moment as the feeling slowly sunk in and forced me to focus on what was happening. A huge tingle ran down my spine, I relaxed, and gave in. I forgot where I was, lost to the pleasure, ignoring any rhyme or reason. Letting myself be carried by the feeling, not caring where it would take me.

The moment, though sweet, was short lived. Like a backlash, the massive rush left almost as quickly as it had come, and I was abruptly brought back to reality.

"What on earth am I doing?" I thought to myself.

This was not the way I had wanted things to go, everything suddenly felt wrong. I broke the kiss quite abruptly, then slowly pushed Opal away. I felt a deep shame and a growing dread, as if I had crossed a line that wasn't meant to be crossed.

"What's wrong, have you never kissed a girl before?" Opal teased. "I don't know if it would be the same back in the real world. But I think you did fine," Opal said as she moved a little closer. "How about you not leave me hanging here. We could go somewhere more private if you'd like," she suggested as she stared at me with hungry eyes.

"I can't. I'm sorry," I apologized.

"What do you mean you can't?" Opal said not wanting to let it go.

"I just can't. I need time to think things over," I said.

"It's that other girl isn't it. You told me you were just friends, that you were just partying together," she retorted.

"We are," I replied.

"Then why is it a problem?" Opal whined.

"I don't know, I just need some time," I said as I left Opal and headed into town.

I took a side road to try to calm myself as these new feelings, new thoughts, bounced around in my head.

"Why was it a problem?" I asked myself the question Opal had put to me. "She's right, it's because of Karla. Nothing could be more obvious. Karla and I are close but we had stated that we were just friends. Then why is it a problem?". I mumbled to myself.

I wandered through the streets for a bit before being interrupted by a familiar sound.

*ding*

I had a new message. I remembered Karla saying she wanted to talk when I got back. The moment didn't seem ideal for whatever she had on her mind. On the other hand if it was from Opal what on earth could I tell her. I wasn't ready to talk to either of them, but there was no way to avoid messages, they got to the recipient almost as soon as they were sent. I took a deep breath and opened the message window.

 _I need to talk to you, NOW!_  
_I'll be in front of the inn._  
_Karla_

I sighed. Though I had no idea what Karla actually had on her mind, I knew what was on mine. Opal had made me an offer that, in the past, I would not have refused. But now I wasn't sure if I should, I felt it could jeopardize my friendship with Karla.

"But we're just friends," I repeated again to myself.

But if that was the case, who was I trying to convince?

"What am I going to do?" I asked as I stared up at the fake sky, hoping an answer would be written there.

But of course it wasn't and I certainly wasn't going to get one just standing around. There was only one thing I really could do at this point: see what Karla wanted to talk about. I sighed again, turned around and made my way to the inn by the waterfront.

Karla was standing in front of the inn. Her arms were crossed and she was looking out over the river.

"Last chance to make a run for it," I thought to myself, expressing what my mind was trying to prevent my body from doing.

I took a deep breath and made my way over.

"Karla, you wanted to see me?" I asked as I got up close.

"Hello Wolf, I'm glad you could spare the time to come and see me. I wouldn't want to take too much time out of your busy schedule," Karla said sarcastically.

She was making me feel very uncomfortable.

"You must have had fun hunting with another partner, so much so that you lost track of time and even had to spend the night in another village. While your regular partner stayed in town and worried about whether or not you were staying safe. Who also, by the way, couldn't go out hunting because she didn't have anyone to go out with," she said.

"You said you didn't want to go?" I cut in, in a sad attempt to justify myself.

"I know what I said. I was a little rash in my decision, I might have changed my mind after giving it some thought. But I couldn't change my mind, could I? You left town so quickly that you didn't even give me a chance to reconsider. You didn't even try to convince me to come," Karla complained.

"And now I don't know what to think. You found someone else to party with, and in a very short time it took a very personal turn for you didn't it? I guess she must be your type, or something. I don't know what you see in her but who am I to judge. It would have been helpful to give me a bit of forewarning, I didn't know you were the type of person to get involved romantically so quickly," Karla said.

"What? No it's not like that. We were just partying together. Nothing happened. Karla, what are you talking about?" I asked.

"Liar!" Karla yelled. "I saw you! You kissed her!" she said.

An incredible feeling of dread spread like wildfire through my whole body. Karla noticed my look of shock and continued.

"Yeah! I was there when you came back to town. You sent me a message that you would be there late in the morning. So I decided I would wait for you. And in doing so I discovered, quite abruptly, that you now had a love interest. I was too embarrassed to stay anything, so I sneaked away hoping you wouldn't see me," Karla explained.

I was panicking now, it was like getting caught with one hand in the cookie jar. I was wrestling with my own feelings, so much so that I almost didn't notice: there was sadness behind those scolding eyes of hers. I felt horrible. I lied to my best friend in here, only to protect my guilty conscience. I couldn't even stand up and admit that something might be going on.

"But I get it," Karla said as her face lost all expression. "We're just friends. We've been telling ourselves this from the very beginning. And as your friend, it's not my place to judge you or criticize your choices. You must do what you think is best, and I guess I'll have to do the same. Things are quite clear for me. I just wish I had a little more time."

"Karla, what are you saying?" I said.

She put on her bravest face and spoke in a genuine tone of voice.

"I won't get in your way. Go see her. It's what you want, isn't it? And I'll explore my own path for a bit," Karla said.

I don't always know the right thing to say, but this time nothing came out, which may have been worse. Karla noticed my hesitation and raised her hand to stop me.

"Let's just leave it at that, shall we?" she insisted.

Without another word and without looking back, she promptly went back into the inn. I just stood there staring at the inn's door and asked myself:

"What just happened?"


	46. Path

I could hear the water lapping on the side of the docks, an NPC was docking his barge to take on some goods before heading out again. A couple of doves were cooing on the ground nearby and I could make out the sounds of the marketplace merchants trying to get players to buy their goods. All the regular sounds of the day came to me as they always did.

But to me everything seemed perfectly still. I wasn't listening to any of it; I was too caught up with the conversation that had just transpired. The whole situation was so twisted that I couldn't quite grasp what all of it meant. Two thoughts pulled me in different directions and both had sense and made no sense at the same time.

On the one hand I was offered the freedom to explore a new path with the blessing of the only person who had any reason to object to it. On the other the offer was attractive and ripe for the picking but I was unsure of the fruit that hung from that tree. Both offers seemed to join at a single point, and going in any other direction would probably prevent me from getting any peace of mind. I gave up trying to fight it, picked a spot by the river, and sat down.

"I think the path will find its way to me," I murmured.

* * *

"Wolf?" a soft hesitant voice spoke my name.

I couldn't help but grin, I was almost surprised at not being wrong. I turned to see a young spear wielding girl, that ironically had trouble with wolves. Maybe it was just my ego making an unannounced appearance but I admit that I was happy to see Opal standing there. I smiled kindly and invited Opal to sit next to me.

"I want to apologize for earlier. It wasn't cool of me to run off. I just had to clear my head," I said.

I looked out over the water. Opal was fiddling with her fingers and biting her lip, to keep herself from saying anything.

"I don't quite know what to make of you yet. But I'm willing to spend my time with you for a bit. I propose we go hunting together if that's agreeable with you," I offered.

"Ok, I can go with that. Does that mean we ..." Opal said with a broad smile.

I gave her a stern look that cut her off. She did not push her luck any further.

"I have all the supplies I need, so I can go anytime. If you need anything we can go to the stores before we head out," Opal said.

"I'm good with what I've got. Let's see how much we can take on before the evening," I said.

This time we headed down the river along a road that followed it. Very few mobs would spawn on the river side of the road. But on the other side it was another story. The forest started just off the road and was home to all kinds of creature that laid in wait for players who strayed into it. Which was precisely what we were going to do. We were, after all, out here to hunt.

"Get your weapon out and protect yourself with it. The creatures here will try to surprise us, by either pouncing from their hiding places, or by dropping from the trees," Opal explained as she held her spear in front of her.

I took out my battle axe and took a fighting stance. We only took a few steps into the woods before we heard a cry of attack. Four large trolls came out behind the trees and charged. I felt my chest tighten with fear. The surprise attempt was having its desired effect. It took all my courage to hold back my desire to turn around and run, which would have been a huge mistake as they would have been able to cut us to pieces with very little resistance. I had to face them, keep my guard up and block them as best as I could.

One of them tried to bowl me over by slamming his club on my head. But thanks to Opal's information I was able to withstand the blow and twist the battle axe to push him to the side under the force of its own attack. The second troll hit me hard on the waist causing me to wince in pain. As it pulled back to get a second swing at me I brought the battle axe in an upward arc, sending the troll flying. I didn't even wait to see how hurt he was, I turned back to the first troll. It took a swing and missed, I spun round two turns slicing the axe across its chest. I went back and forth between the trolls, slamming the axe down hard one moment then swinging it upwards the next. Glancing at my hp bar and I hadn't taken too much damage. I chuckled, these trolls wouldn't stand a chance.

As for Opal, she had managed to thrust her spear into one of the trolls causing a critical hit and it burst almost instantly. A move like that didn't come for free, and the other troll was able to get in a solid attack throwing her on her back. The troll raised its club and came down hard. In a split second Opal rolled away, and the club hit dirt.

The troll looked down to see if it had hit Opal but she had moved away sufficiently for the troll to lose focus. Opal managed to get up and prepare an attack of her own. She took two steps then leaped up, her spear held with both hands over her head. She stabbed the troll before it knew what hit it. Then she pushed off pulling the spear out of the troll causing even more damage. She back flipped and landed a few steps away from it. The troll got its bearings and lunged. Opal anchored her spear into the ground and brought up the tip to the trolls waist. The troll let out a gurgling scream and stopped. A second later it blew up into hundreds of blue-green shards of light.

Opal stood immobile for a second her eyes focused on where the troll was a minute ago. Satisfied of her success, she lifted her spear and twirled it once before turning to me to see how I had fared. Her little show made me smile.

"What's that smile for?" she asked as her cheeks turned a little pink.

"Nice touch," I said as I turned my battle axe in a similar motion.

"Oh stop you're embarrassing me," Opal said to conceal her appreciation of the compliment. "Are we just going to hang around here or are you ready to do some more?" she asked.

I pointed to the road with my battle axe to have her lead the way. After that first encounter I had a feel for how to handle the mobs in the area. We did have to take breaks often to let our natural healing do its thing, but other than the toughness of the creatures, the day went by without a hitch.

* * *

"Got any plans for the evening?" Opal asked.

I looked at her inquisitively.

"I hate to have to eat alone. I do it way too often anyways. We could get something to eat together, if you'd like. There's a nice place with outdoor tables near the smith shop. I could meet you there around seven o'clock. What do you say?" Opal proposed.

I nodded in agreement.

"Good! I going to get reh ... I mean, I've got a few things to do before so I'll meet you there," she said.

She waved with her fingers and headed deeper into town.

I let her go without another word and headed to the marketplace to look for a shop. I opened my menu and took a look at my inventory.

"I've got to sell some stuff," I concluded.

My inventory was full of the regular drops: low level equipment, crafting materials and useless junk. I saw a guy wearing a leather apron and I tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention.

"What can I do for you?" he asked.

"I want to sell my stuff," I responded.

"Ok, but I only take ores and hides. The rest is useless to me, you're better off selling it to a shop," the guy said.

I looked at him quizzically.

"Wait, you're not an NPC, you're a player?" I blurted out.

He burst out laughing.

"Oh man! I knew this crafting gear was going to confuse people. So what have you got that you want to sell?" he asked

I opened a trade window and dropped all the stuff I had to sell so that he could take a look.

"I'll take the hides and the bear claws. So you were hunting near the village in the forest? You have to be in that area to get bears," He said as he counted what he wanted.

"Yeah, not too many players go there because there's only one room to rent in the village," I said.

"Why didn't you stay at the inn? It has a dozen rooms available. They're small but for a temporary stop it's not bad. Hey, you ok? You don't look well," he said frowning.

I caught myself and shook my head. We completed the transactions and he went on his way. I sold the rest of the stuff at an NPC shop. I had a little time before supper so I went to see what was happening by the river. Not that I wanted to look at the river itself, it just gave me somewhere to look so that I wasn't staring into empty space. I pondered what the guy had said about the rooms available at the inn.

"Did Opal simply not know?"


	47. Supper

The floors of Aincrad were huge, so I couldn't expect someone to remember every little detail of their surroundings. But no matter how overwhelming somethings are, there are always details that stick and are never forgotten. Safe zones were so important to players, any that were found would be remembered. As far as I could tell Opal had been on this floor for a while. She had partied with people, hunted the surrounding countryside and generally got around. She said she had explored quite a bit of it, enough to know her way around it, in any case. So how could she forget some basic detail? 

I didn't know why I was being so paranoid, maybe the stress and nervousness were getting to me. I couldn't dwell on every little thing that came up, if I did I'd go crazy. I had to let it go, it wasn't as if I was going to figure it out just standing around, anyway. After all I had other things to think about. I switched out of my armour into a basic shirt and pants. I also put away my battle axe. I passed my hand through my hair in an attempt to comb it, which was pointless as the system kept the players hair in place. Apart from changing its colour, you could only change it if you found a NPC with hairstyling skills.

I headed to the little food shop that Opal had mentioned. It had a couple of tables outside, each sporting two chairs facing each other. From the tables you had a good view of the main square; a good spot to watch people go by. It surprised me that the tables were not already occupied until I glanced at the menus high prices. No wonder players stay away. I waited outside the shop for Opal to show up.

"Have you been waiting long?" Opal asked. 

I turned to answer then stopped as I saw her. She was wearing a short sleeved black dress that stopped just above the knees. Her left shoulder was decorated with a floral frill that trailed all the way to her waist. She swayed right and left. 

"You like it?" Opal asked seeing me stare at her apparel. 

I looked down and saw that she still had the same boots she was wearing when we went hunting that afternoon. 

"I couldn't afford the shoes," Opal said sheepishly. 

We stood there in front of each other for a moment. Then I shook my head. 

"It's fine. You look great. Well we shouldn't stand around all evening worrying about shoes. Shall we?" I said as I offered her to sit at one of the tables. 

She nodded and sat down. I sat in front of her and a waitress came soon after to take our order. At this point I was going to just enjoy the evening.

The conversation was pleasant and friendly, and revolved around the game and its dynamics. We steered away from its horrors and the risks involved every day we spent in it. We focused on our good days, our most brilliant successes, and the cool stuff we'd managed to acquire. I let the effect of the virtual alcohol relax me and let the stories carry me where they may. It was like a moment of peace, where I could forget and simply exist. I would have been happy just existing in this illusion, it wasn't hard to abandon myself to it. I listened to Opal talk about her adventures, letting my imagination fill in the blanks in her story. At least until she started talking about this floor. 

"... I had hitched a ride with a bunch of guys who wanted to hunt away from the river. We totally lost track of time and had to spend the night at a small village," Opal rambled. 

"How many were you?" I interrupted. 

"Six, I think," Opal replied. 

"Sleeping in the street must have been no fun," I said. 

"We didn't sleep outside. We spent the night at the nearest inn. There was plenty of rooms available," Opal said laughing. 

I fixed my eyes on hers. She stopped laughing, and stared at me in shock.

"Plenty of rooms at the inn? I thought you said there wasn't an inn in that village," I asked defiantly. 

Her face screwed up.

"I ... well I ... I just thought it would be better at the cottage," Opal stuttered as she tried to explain. 

"You told me that we had no choice, that there was nowhere else to go. But there obviously was another option, wasn't there? Why did you even need to lie about that?" I asked.

"I ... I have my ... reasons," Opal said in a low voice. 

"They better be good ones, because if you're not playing fair, someone's going to get hurt in all this," I said. 

I took a deep breath and looked at Opal straight in the eyes. 

"Opal, you've been giving me a lot of attention, and I admit, it does wonders for my ego. But some things have not felt quite right since the beginning. I wasn't sure before, but now I realize you're not being completely straight with me. You have my attention, so what's this all about?" I asked.

"Because I don't! I don't have all your attention; you still have, well, other things on your mind!" Opal yelled. 

I was taken aback by her abruptness. Opal sighed before continuing. 

"Other players can't even be bothered by someone like me. A lot of people have not even tried to be civil. One guy even tried to kill me; I got so scared, that I had to hide for days. Why do people have to be so mean? What did I do to them? It's not my fault we're stuck in here," Opal said.

"Then you came along. You helped me out asking for nothing in return. No one had done that in a long time and I liked it. I didn't want to let my chance go, so I followed you. You nearly spotted me in the market place because I was being careless. I had to find a way to spend time with you, so I invited you to come with me. I was happy when you accepted and I was relieved that you were coming alone. Every moment I spent with you, during that day, made me feel great, and I wanted more. That's when I came up with the idea that there was only one room at the cottage. You would have to spend the night with me, we could get even closer," Opal said.

"But it didn't work, and nothing changed, and the next morning you were in a rush to get back. My mind was racing, I spent the whole trip back trying to find a way to make you MY partner. When we got to the edge of town, and I saw her waiting for you, I freaked out," Opal said, her face screwed up in bitterness. 

She looked more angry at being found out than upset at what she'd done. 

"You knew she was there. You saw her," I said indignantly. 

I gasped as I realized what was going on, and said: 

"You kissed me simply for show?"


	48. Possession

"Not just for show! It wasn't: 'just for show!' It was more than that, or at least I felt it was," Opal snapped back, eyes filled with a mix of anger and tears. "And why not. You didn't seem to mind at first, I'd even say that you liked it. Why couldn't you just go along with it? We could be together, why can't you just accept that?" Opal asked.

"Opal, the fact that we're in a party together, doesn't mean I'm ready to get into a relationship with you. I can't give you one hundred percent of my attention, you said it yourself. I'm not ready for this. You want far more than I'm willing to give," I managed before Opal interrupted me.

"Save it!" she snapped.

She stood up from the table and wiped the tears from her eyes. She leaned her fists on the table and gave me a look of defiance.

"I can't go back to being alone, it's horrible, but some people make it worse. I can't manage to connect with anyone, most are horrible with me. You're the only one that doesn't make me uncomfortable. I feel safe with you around. I don't want to lose that. I need you to stay with me, become my partner and to be with me till this hell ends," Opal said, her voice filled with pain.

"Opal, calm down," I said as I tried to talk her out of her anxiety.

"No! I will not let you go! You will be with me and only me!" she yelled.

I shook my head. That might not have been the smartest thing to do. Opals eyes showed signs of panic. She grabbed the knife from the dinner table.

"I'll make you stay. By force if I have to," she said angrily.

By now I was also standing up, surprised by her desperation. I saw the knife glow white, as Opal emotions were getting the better of her. I had to diffuse the situation before it got out of hand. Under normal circumstances I would have talked her down, tried to calm her, and get her to listen to reason. But we weren't under normal circumstances. I opted to fuel the fire instead.

"Go on! Take your best shot!" I yelled.

Opal screamed and released the sword skill. Her hand went straight for my chest and the knife firmly planted itself there. I fell on my back, knocked back by the force of her attack. And though it would be deemed impossible, it felt like all her emotions had been channeled into that blow. The pain in my chest was intense. I grabbed the end of the knife and pulled it out. While taking a few breaths to calm myself I slowly got up and looked at Opal. She was staring blankly at me and was shaking from head to toe. I came up close to her, the knife still in my hand. Seeing it she closed her eyes and braced herself, as I raised my hand in the air.

Her eyes opened in surprise when she heard a metallic sound a few meters away, and found that I was holding her tightly. She sobbed as she took a breath, unable to hold back she cried. Opal was inconsolable. Even when I had managed to sit her down on a bench and had gotten her to stop wailing, she continued to sob uncontrollably. All evening i stayed there holding her. Afraid that if I let her go, she would do something rash. I understood the loneliness and the fear that I had felt and that I had seen in the eyes of other players. But I had never seen despair like what filled those eyes of hers.

"Don't lose hope," I repeated as I tried to console her.

* * *

"What am I going to do now?" Opal asked.

The question startled me. She had stopped crying but had remained huddled up against me.

"I don't know, and I'm probably not much help with that. You're going to have to figure that one out yourself," I said.

"You sound like my sixth grade teacher," she replied.

"He must have been a wise man," I joked. Opal managed a small smile.

Opal straightened up and shifted a little away from me. She looked down at her hands resting on her lap. We sat in silence, amplified by the quietness of the night. There was something comforting in the total lack of noise around us, and neither of us wanted to disturb it. But the silence could not fix what had just been broken.

"You're leaving, aren't you?" Opal said softly.

I was a little surprised by her question as I hadn't even realized it myself that it was going to be my next step. I nodded slowly. Opal looked at the sky and sighed.

"I guess it's to be expected. I don't think it's possible to act worse than I did," she said.

She sighed again and swallowed hard.

"I was sure you were going to hit me back. Maybe you should have. I mean, I did plant a knife in your chest. You should have been mad, you should have called me all kinds of unpleasant names, you should have taken your anger out on me. But you didn't, and now I hurt more than if you had hit me. And there's no healing crystal for that," Opal said

"I'm sorry for what I did. I only cared for me and what I wanted. I didn't stop to think about how other people would feel. It's one of the reasons I ended up alone in the first place. I alienated a bunch of people early on because of my attitude. They could have been my friends, if I had just been more careful. And now, again, by being too greedy, I'm losing you. I hurt you, when all you did was be nice to me. I'll understand that you hate me," Opal said.

The sky grew suddenly quite brighter as the virtual sun began to rise. l got up as if it was my cue.

"This world is the enemy. I blame everything that happens to us on it. We have to work together, fight together, and survive together if we're ever to beat this thing. And that's exactly what we did. So to fight you would be like punishing the innocent. That's why I won't take it out on you," I said.

I walked around the bench and put my hand on her shoulder. She reached up and put her hand on mine.

"I'm sorry it had to end up this way between us. Don't ever lose hope. We will see the end of this. Farewell Opal," I said, as I removed my hand.

I made to go but hesitated. My face screwed up I didn't want to give her false hopes but I didn't want to leave any loose ends either.

"Opal. I don't..." I started.

"You don't what?" she said softly.

"I don't hate you."


	49. Alone

The virtual sun was just rising on Aincrad. I stared at it for moment. It's as if I hoped it would charge me up like a battery. I was exhausted. After all I'd spent the whole night awake and that after a whole day of hunting all sorts of creatures, just tough enough to give me a hard time. To top it all off the evening was way too emotionally draining.

I dragged my feet to the inn, and without even glancing at the common room, I went to my room and collapsed on the bed. I couldn't be bothered with changing my clothes. I laid there, staring at the ceiling, a rerun of the past days playing back in my mind. I screamed in frustration. All I wanted was a little peace. I took a very deep breath to calm myself, and without further notice, I simply fell asleep.

I slept without dreams, a peaceful empty slumber that pushes all your worries aside and centers on keeping you out for as long as possible. A big dose of just the right medicine, so much so that It was already midday when I finally woke up. My mind remained half asleep as I got up. 

"A little breakfast and a large coffee should do the trick," I thought to myself. 

I chuckled at the thought. 

"Coffee? Hah! In your dreams Wolf, in your dreams," I said aloud. 

Even if they burnt the tea it wouldn't be anywhere near what I craved. And NPCs never burnt anything. I stared over my food sitting at one of the tables of the inn. For the first time in a while I was alone with nothing to do, no plan to do it. I used to know exactly what to do when I was alone: go hunt, trade items, eat, sleep. What little charm it once had was now lost, the gains seeming meager for such a high risk. On the other hand it was an intrinsic part of the very nature of MMORPGs.

I headed to the market place to equip myself with some healing items, and do a little maintenance on the battle axe. The smith here had a good collection of weapons and quite a few parts you could add to armour to upgrade it: studs, spikes, extra plates, and more. I browsed his wares while I waited. I paused when I saw the katana he had on display. A shiver traveled the length of my spine. 

"You interested in the katana?" the smith said as he came back with my battle axe. 

"I ... no. I'm just looking," I stuttered surprised by his presence. 

"Look all you like. You just don't look like the type to use one," he said. 

"Someone I know uses one," I said absentmindedly. 

The smith just stood there with my battle axe in front of him. I stared at him for a moment till I realized what he wanted. I paid him for his work and left the store feeling empty.

I headed along the river, along the route I had taken the day before. I got to about a hundred meters out of town before leaving the road and cutting into the forest. I readied my battle axe as I carefully entered the forest. Almost instantly I was attacked by a Giant Centipede, orange-brown in colour with sideways, very sharp claw like mandibles. I didn't get much chance to asses it's aesthetics, or lack thereof, as it raised its body and dove at me. I moved as fast as I could to avoid those sharp claws, I felt its legs just brush my shoulder. I counterattacked by chopping downwards into the insect's side. Then I yelled "Switch!"

Nothing happened. For a moment I had forgotten I was going at this alone. The creature seemed to decide it was its duty to remind me, by thrashing its body and knocking me to the ground. Cursing through clenched teeth, I tried to get a grip on how I was going to do this. I hadn't fought alone for so long that I no longer had a strategy to match my skills. It wasn't going to be easy.

I got back on my feet as the creature came down for another attack which I managed to block with the battle axe. I let loose a spinning attack that caused multiple hits, then finished with a dazing blow. I damaged the Giant Centipede but it left me open for attacks again, and this time those mandibles cut into my shoulder. My health was dropping too fast for comfort. I would have to protect myself more. I started alternating offensive and defensive skills.

That worked, my health was now going down slower, though it was still going down, and it was going to take twice as long to kill the Giant Centipede. I was switching between styles, blocking even when the creature couldn't retaliate. But I wasn't going to make it if I couldn't keep my health up, I would have to take a potion. Right after performing a stunning blow I took one as fast as I could at the risk of making myself vulnerable. The creature attacked again before I had time to finish it. My health was only at half but there wasn't much more I could do about it.

With my health still going down, I fought the urge to panic and tried to concentrate on the creature in front of me. I charged a sword skill and waited till the creature made its move. As it dove towards me, I released the skill which luckily managed to hit it four times. I saw the beast shudder for a moment then explode in that now too familiar firework of blue-green sparks.

I felt no pride, no joy, no power from beating the creature. I just needed to get to somewhere safe and get there as fast as I could. Downing a potion, I backed out of the woods, praying that I didn't aggro any other creatures. Once on the road, i tossed the empty potion bottle and grabbed my battle axe with both hands, madly looking everywhere, terrified of my surroundings. Panic stricken, I ran all the way back to town.

Once in town, I looked back where I'd come from. Still scared of what was out there. 

"I can't do it," I said in half a whisper. 

I sat on the ground and just stared out into the wilderness, still shaken from the experience. From where I sat it was deceivingly calm, and actually looked inviting. It was an attractive but deadly combination that I'd have to resist if I was to survive.

I would need help. The creatures were just too strong to take alone. I would need someone I could party with. Someone to be my battle partner, who wants to go hunting as much as me and who could back me up when the going got rough. There was only one person I could think of that would really fit the bill. There was no way around it. I would have to ask if she would come with me once again. 

I didn't know exactly where she was at this point and not wanting to wander all over town, I thought the best way would be to send her a note. I brought up my menu and accessed my friends list. It popped up in a fraction of a second but I stared at it for a good five minutes, with my hand hovering over the names, before coming to grips with what I saw. 

Karla's name was gone.


	50. Revelation

"No, no, no, no, no! You've got to be in here," I fretted. 

I repeatedly closed and reopened my menus and accessed the friends list. Each time hoping the list would refresh the missing information. But the list always displayed the same thing. No matter how I looked at it, no matter how much I begged it to change, the list remained the same. Karla's name simply wasn't there.

I jumped up in a panic I looked around wildly. I stopped myself and thought for a moment, she could still be at the inn. I ran to it and burst in. I quickly looked around the common room. Not surprisingly it was empty, most players were out doing stuff at this time of the day. She had to be elsewhere. I ran up the stairs and stopped in front of Karla's room. I took a deep breath and knocked. After a brief moment of silence, the door opened.

"Hello? What do you want?" said the guy standing at the door. 

"Um, I was expecting someone else. Is this Karla's room?" I asked. 

"Nope, this is my room, and there's just me here. You've got the wrong room," he replied. 

"Oh, sorry about disturbing you. But if you don't mind my asking, when did you rent it?" I inquired. 

"Yesterday, it had just freed up when I asked the NPC downstairs for a room," he said.

I left the inn feeling disoriented and upset. What was I going to do now? I really wanted to talk to her, but how could I reach her if I had no way to find her. I needed to figure this out. I leaned against the side of one of the buildings and dropped down to a sitting position. I crossed my hands over my knees and leaned my chin on them. What could have happened to her? My imagination got the better of me. 

"What if she went out into the wilderness and didn't make it back? What if she's ... NO! It can't be!" 

I shuddered at the thought and it made me feel sick. I wasn't ready to face that kind of prospect, if it turned out to be true I would never forgive myself. I had to convince myself that it just wasn't true. I opened my friends list again.

"If she was gone her name would still be here, just grayed out. She must be ok; she has to be alive!" I told myself, as I tried to remain calm. 

I was thinking through all kinds of scenarios as to why she was no longer on my list. Form the silliest of reasons that maybe I was cramping her style, that I just wasn't cool enough, all the way to the darkest ones that maybe she had become a red player and was now out to get me. None of them were remotely plausible, but my imagination being what it was created them nonetheless. It just hid the fact that I didn't want to face a very real possibility that maybe she had simply given up on me.

Had I done something that warranted such a cold separation? In retrospect, what I did wasn't cool and I could understand her getting on my case for it. I occasionally did stupid things with school mates in the past. And we paid the price for our stupidity. But no one ever gave up or left saying they didn't ever want to hang out ever again. 

"Could she really not want to be my friend anymore?" I pondered. 

Friends don't usually quit on each other. I did make her mad, I couldn't deny that, but to the point of breaking off all communications seemed a little harsh. The intensity of her reaction the other day, and now the breakup of our friendship didn't match with a regular friendship. 

"Friends just don't break up. The people who break up are ..." I never finished my thought. 

I sat there with my mouth gaping like a fish. An electric surge ran up my spine to the back of my neck. With what I realized at that moment, it became essential that I find her now more than anything. 

I'd heard that going back to the beginning was always a good place to start. For most players, in this world, that would be the town of beginnings. But in my case, my life here really started on the second floor, near a small town, where I rescued a girl from a giant spider. I thought back to that time, to all that happened. The monsters we fought and barely escaped in some cases. Learning to work together, pooling our strengths, keeping each other safe and the evenings where we talked and connected. Even if this world only existed inside a computer, that connection was real. We had forged a great friendship. And now, I realized that it was much more than that.

I stood up with a jolt. Sitting around wasn't going to help me find her. I headed to the floor teleporter and called out : "Urbus". I was instantly enveloped in bright light and the scenery faded away. It was quickly replaced with the familiar setting of the second floor. I got off the teleporter and headed down one of the main streets. This town was only a way point on the way to my final destination.

I walked straight out of town without even glancing back and headed down a road I had traveled before. It snaked through the valleys and crossed the plateaus. The many creatures that wandered near the road weren't bothered by my presence. I had leveled enough that they no longer detected me as a target. Those that remained aggressive were quickly taken care of. Two or three hits was all that was needed. The rewards hadn't changed but were meager compared to what could be gotten on higher floors.

A doubt entered my mind. It was unlikely for Karla to come back to this floor to hunt. It would simply be too tedious. If she was here it would have to be for other reasons. The thought was not cheering me up to say the least, but the fact remained that I had to start my search somewhere. This place might just hold enough memories for her to come back to it. I was certainly the case for me.

It was evening when I came in sight of Taran. The sun was setting, and the lights were slowly coming up all over town. The road and the buildings were all too familiar to me. I entered the town and headed to the inn where I previously had stayed and booked a room there. I reserved only one night, I would take it one day at a time. I would start my search tomorrow, for now I just wandered the streets aimlessly. 

"I'm back where it all started."


	51. Restart

I slept that night even if I was convinced that I would not be able to. Back in the real world feelings like I was having would have kept me up all night. I would have never fallen asleep as nervous as I was. But I did sleep. As I lay in bed, I recalled the most pleasant moments I had shared with Karla. That vision relaxed me and I closed my eyes to hold on to it. Somehow the system knew what to do, and I fell into a deep slumber. Under such conditions the game made it almost impossible to stay awake. Laying in a bed, closing one's eyes and relaxing created an inescapable condition, and sleep would come almost instantly.

I woke up slightly annoyed that I had slept more than I needed to, but strangely refreshed and motivated, it was the side effect of having a purpose. I headed out of the inn and looked around, then headed to the edge of the town. Karla had sat there when I first invited her to party with me. I imagined her there sitting on a rock, looking out into the wilderness. But when I got there, there was no one. I quickly scanned the area before heading to my next destination.

I went to the town square with the small monument. But there again there was no indication that Karla had ever been there. I recalled getting scolded by her; having deserved it. I chuckled at the thought as I let the feelings resurface. Where was the girl that had, a while ago, invited me to be her friend? I shook my head and headed to the market place. There was one last place I wanted to check.

The tea shop was there, as it had always been. I half expected to still see my abandoned tea cup on the table, and Karla glaring at me near the entrance. Obviously she wasn't there, and neither was my tea. I felt a little stupid; I was the only one who had had tea here. She'd only showed up to get me to follow her. There's no reason for her to come back here, it wouldn't be significant enough for her. I left the shop and wandered the streets, hoping for a miracle.

I didn't really know why I had come back to Taran. There was no sign of her, or even of her recently passing through this town. So why did I think she might be here? It was all wishful thinking. I just wanted it to be true, without any indication or information to back myself up. In fact I was procrastinating. There was a way to contact her, but I was doing my best to avoid it.

I wasn't the only player that had been in contact with her. Specifically, I knew of two brothers that had Karla on their friends lists: Ory and Sharpclaw. I actually felt embarrassed to ask them for news of Karla. It was hard to admit to someone younger that I had messed things up. But they were the only ones that could get in touch with her to give me even a remote chance of fixing things up. I reluctantly opened my menu and sent a message to Ory.

_Ory,_

_I'm on the second floor, in Taran._   
_I need your help again._

_I messed up with Karla and I need to apologize to her._   
_But I can't reach her 'cause she un-friended me._   
_Can you help me reach her?_

_I'm heading back to Urbus, I can meet you in the market square._

_Wolf_

A few minutes later I got a response.

_Ok for the market square._   
_BTW be careful on the way here._   
_It's less safe than it was last time you were here._   
_c u l8r_

I chuckled at his version of 'see you later'. Having not done much chat lately, it oddly emphasized the fact that there were real people behind the avatars, not just computer programs just to be used. It bugged me that I had to get Ory involved in my situation. But I had no other way of contacting Karla. She probably had not realized how radical it was to un-friend someone, or how difficult it would be to get back in contact with the person, once you did. She certainly had not considered that I'd have to go through someone else.

Getting a response from Ory actually raised my spirits. I was being selfish of course, using him to get in touch with Karla. But he was a good guy and at the least it would give me a reason to meet up with him again and catch up on what he and his brother were doing. They wanted to train and get better and I wanted to know how that was going, whether, or not, they had managed to go up a couple of levels.

With the promise of a happy reunion, I headed out of town and took the main road. Once again I traveled the path back to Urbus, meandering through the valleys and cutting across the plateaus. The all too familiar fauna, to which I was more of a threat than it was to me, was totally ignoring me. With no threat in sight I kept my battle axe on my back and lazily took in the scenery as I walked.

"Hey!" a voice called out to my right.

I stopped dead in my tracks. I had not expected to meet anyone on this road. Before I had time to grab my battle axe, a guy jumped out of the bushes with his sword out. He came up to within a meter of me then stopped. He eyed me up and down then spoke.

"Are you headed for Urbus?" he asked.

"Yeah, why do you want to know?" I asked back.

"Good. Mind if I join you?" he replied.

I instinctively looked up at his cursor: it was green. I was relieved that he wasn't a player killer, but I was still a little worried as he had not sheathed his sword.

"If you put your weapon away first," I requested.

He looked at his sword and swiftly sheathed it.

"Sorry about that. I was taking on some creatures out here and I usually leave my weapon out when I do," he apologized. "I would have headed back later but you came along. Me not wanting to miss an opportunity to benefit from the presence of another player, I'd rather go back with you. And if we do encounter anything it'll be easier for the both of us to take care of it. In fact you get a similar advantage, no?" he pointed out.

With my level, it wasn't much of an issue, but I decided not to mention it.

"Before we go, I'll just organize something in my inventory," he said as he accessed his menus.

From what I could tell he accessed his messages instead, and it looked as if he sent a message, just before closing his menu. I didn't see him type anything though so it seemed strange to me that he'd be sending a message. I brushed it off, thinking that I must have been mistaken.

As we headed out he let me take the lead. I tried to make conversation but he wasn't very talkative, once we started walking.

"I heard the road wasn't as safe as it used to be," I said.

"Is that so?" he responded.

He didn't seem too concerned with my words. Instead he walked slightly behind me, nervously looking at either side of the road. His level appeared to be lower than mine, so it didn't surprise me that he would be a little worried. We walked like this for ten minutes or so before we came to a spot where the road passed between a large rock a couple of trees. I stopped before reaching it.

"Why are you stopping?" he huffed.

"There are players hiding behind the rocks," I told him.

"Whoever is hiding behind those rocks, show yourselves!" I shouted to the unseen players.

Four players appeared from behind the rocks and the trees, with their weapons at the ready. My heart sank as I looked at their cursors : they were orange. We had to get some distance between us and the orange players.

"Maybe we can outrun them," I suggested.

"That won't be possible. Well at least for you it won't be," my traveling partner said.

I heard him unsheathe his sword. I looked back and saw that he pointed it at me.

"You see, it's like you said: 'The roads just aren't safe anymore.' "


	52. Negotiations

I was probably in the worst situation I could ever get myself into. I walked straight into their trap while thinking that I was helping this guy out by giving him a little more protection as he traveled back to town. In a twisted way, helping him was precisely what I did, like a pig that wanders into a slaughterhouse. I seem to have delivered myself to them on a silver platter.

"Why team up with them? Your cursor is green!" I said indignantly. 

He smiled evilly, enjoying the control he had over me in this situation. 

"Someone has to. How else would we get supplies? If we were all orange, it would be nearly impossible to go into town. Also someone has to be the bait, to lure people in. So I stay green, play nice in town, offer my help, and no one's the wiser," he boasted.

"But if you attack me now, your cursor will change," I warned. 

He laughed condescendingly. 

"Oh, I'm not the one that's going to attack you. I'm just here to prevent you from leaving. It's a safe bet that you won't try to attack me either. If you hit me, your cursor will turn orange and then I'll have all the liberty to kill you without even affecting my status. Now, wouldn't that be fun," he jeered.

The four orange players were individually no match for me, but together it was another matter altogether, they would overpower me. I had to try to talk my way out of this, or maybe buy my way out. 

"How about I offer you something in exchange for not killing me? Money, maybe a weapon, crystals; there must be something of value you would like to have? Maybe I have something you're interested in," I proposed.

"You're kidding me, right? Anything you have, we'll just take from you once you're dead. We like to keep a low profile, we don't particularly want anyone to know we're out here. I wouldn't want anyone to be able to identify us which would prevent us from going about our business. I can't let that happen, so I'll have to kill you anyways. Regardless, I don't think you have anything of value that could possibly make us change our minds," he said. 

"I could spare your lives. If you fight me, some of you will die, are you willing to pay that price?" I threatened.

"There's no way you're strong enough. No one hangs around here long. If you are as tough as you presume, you'd be on higher floors," he said. 

"Maybe I'm just visiting, you know, looking for an old friend, and you're interrupting my search," I teased, even though this was entirely true. 

"Yeah, right! Coming to see grandma are we? There's no way I'm going to believe a word of it!" he shouted.

That was it, he was growing too impatient, the only thing I could do now was to appeal to his survival instincts. 

"We're supposed to fight together not against each other. It's the only way to beat the game. Don't you want to get out?" I argued. 

"There's no way to beat this game, it's hopeless. We're basically all dead. The only difference between you and me is that you're just going to be dead sooner. Take him!" he shouted.

Two orange players rushed in to attack me as I pulled out my battle axe, just barely managing to block their blows. The other two didn't hesitate and came in right after, with their sword skills activated and me as their target. I felt the pain of the hit as one of the blades penetrated my shoulder taking some of my health. Luckily the other blow only glanced off my armor. 

I swung my axe down hard on the player directly in front of me. He lifted his sword to block the blow, but my strength being higher than his, the blade still managed to do some crushing damage. I moved my axe to a defensive stance just in time to block another orange player's sword skill. The other two orange players now flanked me, in perfect position for their attacks and I couldn't block them. They slashed their swords at me cutting large gashes on my back and my legs. This time I lost a lot of health. 

I started panicking, my concentration making way to instinctive fear. My mind focused solely on my plight. 

"I'm not going to last. They're going to kill me. And I won't get to see Karla again," I thought. 

As the reality of that outcome seemed imminent, the pain of it grew to be too much to bear. As if to ask for forgiveness I screamed out her name: "Karla!". 

The orange players took advantage of this moment of panic and managed to take another large chunk of my health. I couldn't beat them, they would eventually kill me and there was nothing I could do about it. My feeling of panic quickly changed to a feeling of rage. 

"Someone's going to pay. The one who tricked me is the one who stands to lose the most. I'm going to kill him," I fumed. 

I attacked with a spinning blow. All four orange players were caught in it. Some fell back, stunned by the blow, while others jumped back to avoid it, leaving a large space around me. If I was going to act, this was the opportunity for me to move. 

I dashed to the green player, who I caught off guard, not expecting me to move against him, and rammed my body into his. He fell down on his back, stunned by the blow. When he tried to get up, I slammed my foot on his chest and pinned him to the ground. He really hadn't expected to take part in the battle and put his life at risk. He stared at me wide eyed, with both surprise and terror. 

"If I'm to die here I'm taking you with me," I cried out in rage as I lifted my battle axe, preparing to strike.

Then suddenly I held back. I heard a voice that stopped me and prevented the axe from coming down. Was it my conscience, a voice inside my head? I looked at the player pinned under my foot whose life I could dispose of in a second. The rage still present I raised the axe again. 

"Wolf don't!" 

This time the voice came to me crystal clear. The command was clear and I could not oppose it. Too long had I trusted that voice, and it had the ability to overpower me. Not letting my guard down I turned to see a girl place herself between me and the orange players. Then in a barely audible breath I whispered:

"Karla!"


	53. Judgement

"Don't, you'll regret it," Karla said. 

Grinding my teeth in rage I held the battle axe inches from the player's face, who was pinned down under my foot. 

"Ok then, what do you suggest we do now?" I asked, hoping she had some kind of plan that would actually prevent me from killing this guy.

"Take this and teleport to Taft!" she commanded, handing me a blue teleport crystal.

I looked down at the player squirming under my foot. 

"She probably just saved your life," I spat at him. 

"Now, Wolf! We have to go now, they're closing in," Karla pleaded. 

She was right, of course. The orange players were destabilized at the arrival of Karla, unsure of how another player was going to affect the outcome of the battle. But it wouldn't last, and there was no way we were going to let them recover before getting out of there. I held the crystal and called out: "Taft". 

I saw one of my attackers try desperately to get in a last blow. His sword vanished from my sight moments before hitting me. Then everything turned white as the second floor was erased from my sight and quickly got replaced with the scenery of the town of Taft. I flinched as I rematerialized on the teleporter even if the attacker was no longer in front of me. I took a step to get off the platform but Karla grabbed my shoulder. 

"Don't get off. We can't stay here. Go to Elland and head for the keep. Don't ask questions, just do it!" she said. 

She called out "Elland" and disappeared from my sight. I watched her go and then I also called out the name of the town we'd already spent so much time in. I reappeared on Elland's teleportation platform. A feeling of safety came over me as I arrived in this all too familiar town. Quickly getting my bearings I took off down the street and headed for the keep. Karla must have taken off faster than me as I couldn't see her on the street. Arriving at the keep, I only glanced briefly at this impressive building before entering it and meandering through the corridors and heading up the stairs to the main hall. 

"I hope you weren't followed," Karla burst out as I got into the hall. 

I stopped in my tracks, this was not going to be a smooth reunion. Her tone of voice was already scolding. I cringed, even though I knew I probably deserved it. 

"I don't think so. No one got off the platform after me," I stated. 

"You better be right. If they think we're a threat they won't hesitate to hunt us down and kill us! But if they can't track us we have a chance that they'll just leave us alone. I don't want to have to deal with them, I don't even know why we have to deal with murderers. I was actually trying to avoid the second floor altogether, and I was doing just that, until mister here had to get himself into trouble," Karla complained.

"It wasn't my fault, I was just trying to get back to Urbus," I whined. 

Her tone of voice now had me on the defensive. 

"That was really stupid of you, going out alone. You think you can handle it? Well you're wrong. The creatures are unpredictable, even on the lower floors. Even a low level creature can stun you or paralyze you in some way, if they have the ability. When that happens there's really nothing you can do, the creature then has all the liberty to kill you," Karla scolded.

"I can handle the creatures, it's the players I have trouble with. I admit I wasn't prepared for that kind of encounter. And honestly, I don't want to ever be in that situation again. I don't want to face the prospect of actually having to kill someone. If you hadn't shown up, and managed to stop me, there would have been at least one less player in the game," I said. 

I shivered at the prospect, amplified by the panic that still lingered as an aftereffect of that encounter. 

"You came to help me in the nick of time, and I'm so glad you did. But how is that even possible? I mean how did you know? How did you find me?" I questioned. 

"Ory contacted me," she huffed, as she crossed her arms and frowned in disapproval. "He said you were heading back to Urbus from Taran. Just a few minutes before, I was reading the news some of the players publish. It warned about orange players wandering the lower floors and of players disappearing without a trace," she said. 

"I was so upset with you: using a friend to reach me, going out into the wilderness solo, hanging out with that ... other girl. I wanted to catch up with you and give you a piece of my mind, " she grumbled. "I ran to the teleport and headed down to Urbus. There's really only one road to Taran from Urbus so I took that and practically ran down it. My mind was set on catching up with you. I really had a bad feeling, and I just couldn't get rid of it," she recounted.

"My blood went cold when I heard my name. I wasn't very far away when I heard you cry out. I freaked out, unsheathed my katana and ran in the direction the voice had come from," she said. 

She took a deep breath as if it was hard to keep her calm. 

"I wasn't even careful, I just ran in without a second thought for my own safety. I don't know what I was thinking. Then after ... well you know the rest," Karla fumed. 

I nodded silently, embarrassed at my stupidity and upset with having put Karla in danger. 

"What were you doing there anyway? Why come down to a lower floor? The hunting would be pointless and the shops can't offer you things that aren't available on higher floors. It doesn't make much sense," Karla said. 

"I was looking for someone I know," I said simply. 

"Well did you at least find that person?" she asked. 

I smiled in spite of myself.

"It's actually the other way around," I said. 

"You found me!"


	54. Consideration

"What do you mean about me finding you?" Karla asked.

She obviously hadn't caught on and was probably in no mood for cryptic comments.

"It was you. You're the one I was looking for. I went to the second floor hoping you might be there. I wasn't there for hunting or trading. I went back to Taran hoping for a clue to your whereabouts," I explained.

"I don't know why you'd be looking for me in Taran. I don't know why you'd be looking for me at all, for that matter. It's not as if you've wanted me around lately or anything. You have better things to do apparently. Following your own path, so to speak," Karla noted.

She crossed her arms and looked away for a moment before continuing.

"Ok, so I'm here, now what do you want?" she asked.

"I want to be your friend again," I said.

She frowned at me, and I put my hands up so that she didn't get the wrong idea.

"What I mean is that I want to be on your friends list. I couldn't contact you, so I went looking for you. In the end I had to contact someone else just to get in touch with you. It's too hard if you're not on my friends list. Please add me again?" I begged.

She was still frowning, her eyes giving away her annoyance.

"Fine," she huffed and opened her menu and sent me a friend request which I accepted immediately.

I felt happy that she did friend me again but my happiness did not appear to be shared.

"I'm only putting you on my list to prevent you from killing yourself by your own stupidity, which would suit me fine if this wasn't an actual death game. Now, if there's nothing else you need from me, I'll be on my way," Karla said giving me a look of disapproval.

"No, that was it. I won't ask for anything else," I grumbled.

Not asking didn't mean that there wasn't something I needed from her, I just didn't feel this was the right time to ask. She headed for the stairs and just before taking them she looked back at me. I was watching her go and she made a sour face just before heading down the stairs.

I just stood there for a while, going through my menus, bringing up the friends list just to make sure Karla's name was in fact there. I went wandering the second floor and I nearly got myself killed, just to get that name on the list. And in the end, I had achieved what I set out to do. Then why did I feel terrible? Something in the look Karla gave as she left, made me feel very bitter.

I dragged my feet out of the keep and into the fairly busy streets of Elland. I had nothing planned so I simply headed to the market place, and browsed the shops aimlessly. I stopped briefly at the bakery where I had learned how to cook. I considered whether or not I should make use of my time increasing my skill. But I wasn't really in the mood for any skill building or self-improvement. Anyway, each failure would probably frustrate me more than it would on a regular day.

Somehow I ended up in front of the pub. I smiled at the cliché: a guy gets in trouble with a girl and heads to the bar to drown his sorrows. Somehow that sounded just about right. You couldn't get drunk as such, the drinks could only slow you down, both mentally and physically, throwing in a little euphoria to serve its purpose. On the other hand I had eaten very little today so if nothing else I could at least get a meal in here. I walked in and headed for the bar.

"Hey, grab a table. I'd really appreciate it if you do," someone called out to me.

I turned around and saw a waiter pointing at the tables.

"I didn't think you cared where I sat," I replied.

"It's better for me if you're at a table. That way I'll finish the quest faster. Before you ask; I'm not a NPC. I picked up this quest to wait on tables. If I complete it I get a full meal, some col and a little xp. It's not much, but I can't get myself killed in here. The players I serve have to sit at the tables for it to work though," he explained

I grabbed an empty chair at a small table and sat down.

"Hello, I'll be your waiter for today, what would you like to order?" the waiter asked.

I knew what I wanted so I didn't even glance at the menu.

"A mug of ale and a chicken sandwich please," I ordered.

He fiddled with his menus which eventually caused a popup window to appear in front of me. It had the list of items I had just ordered and the price. I accepted and the waiter left to get my order. Moments later he came back with my order.

"Thanks a lot for sitting at a table, a lot of players aren't so considerate. Enjoy your meal," the waiter said before going about his business.

I ate and drank, feeling a little better than I did when first came in. The food has an enjoyable effect on me, but for some reason it was the waiter that had managed to cheer me up. Even if it exposed the simple consideration I wasn't giving to the person I cared the most about.

* * *

There was no point going anywhere else so I spent the night at the inn here in Elland. I had an uneventful night and simple breakfast, and was now feeling a bored and agitated. I didn't feel like sitting around doing nothing all day. It's not as if I had enough material to even do some crafting, I would have to gather what I needed before starting, and that meant going out into the wilderness. There was no way around it: I needed to go out there and kill some monsters.

I asked a couple of players if they had come across any red players but they seemed unconcerned with them. It appeared that red players were ignoring this floor altogether. Without any red players in the area, there was very little actual risk to me. Small comfort when my mind could still hear Karla scolding me about going out on my own, emphasizing my guilty feelings of wanting to do just that.

I checked my gear and headed for the drawbridge at the west gate. I got about half way before my attention shifted to someone calling to me. Karla, it turned out and to my surprise, had not left this floor.

"What do you think you're doing?" she fumed.

"Uh,... making myself useful by training a bit. I'll go crazy if I stay in town all day," I complained.

"You're willing to put yourself in danger again? I won't be able to bail you out every time you're life is on the line. If I'm in town I won't even know that you've gotten yourself into trouble," she raged.

She's was right, but there was one way to satisfy her. I looked at her squarely and said:

"Come with me then!"


	55. Anger

Karla was looking at me strangely.

"You want me to party with you and go kill some monsters? Give me a good reason why I would want to do this with you," Karla said indignantly.

She had a point, we were supposed to be partners but I just took off with someone I hardly knew to do some hunting without taking her into consideration. And it's not as if I gave her much time to think about it, I simply took off.

"I don't know if I have a good reason, but I don't want to go out there alone anymore. I bet you don't want to go out alone either. If we went together, we could watch each other's back, switch in and out, rely on each other's strengths. I want to improve but it's really hard to do that solo. I need someone to come with me, and I have no one else to go with," I said.

"So I'm just a filler now?" Karla yelped.

I cringed as I realized how that had come out.

"What happened to the other girl you were partying with? I thought she was hanging on to you like a bad cold. I'm certain Pearl would love to go with you," Karla jeered and rolled her eyes when she said her name.

"Opal. Her name is Opal," I said without thinking.

"I don't care what her name is!" she snapped back angrily.

I really need to learn to keep my mouth shut. Karla crossed her arms and turned her nose up at me in disgust. This conversation was not going well at all. She was upset with me, and I was doing nothing to calm her down. In fact, I was simply sinking deeper into the hole I had dug myself, and at the same time I was fueling her anger even more. But even though she was angry, she showed no desire to leave, and, in a twisted way, that made me feel better.

"Karla, there is no 'Opal', or anyone else for that matter, there is nothing between her and me," I said.

Karla turned her head a little towards me.

"Things stopped before they even started, then it quickly went sour. She didn't play fair and I didn't like it," I said.

I paused as I thought back on how that had ended.

"You don't want me to bore you with all the details, do you?" I asked.

Karla looked down and shook her head.

"Look; you're mad. I get it. You're allowed to be in whatever mood you want. And frankly, it doesn't change my offer. I still need you to come with me. And no it's not just to fill an empty spot. There's no reason, no hidden agenda, no purpose, I simply want you to come along," I stated, my eyes now fixed on her.

She looked up at me, a little taken aback, then gave me a look of disgusted disbelief, as if she didn't trust me. She turned to face me and turned her nose up at me.

"Fine, I'll party with you. But don't think for a minute that it makes me less upset. I'm only doing it so that you don't get yourself killed," Karla said.

She put her hands on her hips.

"Well, are you going to invite me or not?" she pestered.

I opened my menus and sent Karla a party request.

* * *

We'd made it up to the moors and did most of our hunting there. The creatures weren't particularly challenging, except when they came as a hoard: they were harder to take out when we were being attacked on all fronts. I had come out principally to line my pockets with a little cash, so to speak. It's not like we were getting any xp worth mentioning.

The hunting itself went smoothly. We had the upper hand on the creatures, carefully taking them out, one at a time, until a whole area was cleared. I was even able to do some gathering and take out a few passive animals, mostly sheep, for the materials they provided. We knew this floor well enough, having hunted it quite a bit, that our outing could have almost been classified as bordering on boring.

But I wasn't feeling bored, in fact I was more irritated than anything else. Karla's mood was not improving and now she seemed more spiteful than simply upset. During the trip up here she said nothing, sporting a sour face the whole way. The first encounters were no better, making me take most of the blows, then coming in to the fight just to take the killing blow. It's a cheap shot to steal a kill from another player, it's even more irritating when someone does it on purpose.

I attempted to overlook her behavior and tried to stay positive but the frustration would get the better of me that I would let out a loud sigh at the end of our battles which I'm sure she noticed. She did participate normally on some fights, so I tried to compliment her when she made a particularly good hit, or a spectacular dodge. It seemed to have no effect; she'd turn her head away and ignore me.

"Oh enough already!" I shouted, after we'd just finished a battle. "You've been acting like a spoiled princess, who's upset because the pony she just got isn't quite the right shade of pink! You're trying so hard to stay angry and it's really getting on my nerves. How long are you going to keep that up?" I complained.

"As long as it takes!" Karla snapped.

"For what? What exactly is bothering you? Is it something I did? If it is please help me figure it out, 'cause this is really hard to take," I whined.

"It's everything! You; the other players; the game; even me; it's all broken. Nothing's making sense anymore. We're stuck in a game that can kill us, with some messed up people with no morals, who allow themselves to murder other players. I'm trying to keep it together but I can't do it alone. And you just ..." she hissed like a snake unwilling to finish. "All of it just makes me angry. And when I'm angry all this is somehow easier to take. So I decided I'd stay angry. Then maybe I'd be able to get through it, day after day," she said.

"And how's that working for you?" I asked.

The way she fidgeted, I could tell that it wasn't working as well as she thought it would. I softened my tone of voice.

"Though I know you can be stubborn, you can't stay mad forever. It's not going to solve anything, and it's just going to make you miserable. You'll just be hurting yourself," I said.

"So what if I do, it's not as if anyone will care. Let this game get the better of me it doesn't matter anymore," Karla admitted.

I couldn't let that go, so I said:

"It matters to me."


	56. Demonstration

Karla mattered to me more than she knew. She had managed to change my outlook towards this game and our implication in it. I used to be fine on my own, I would do my things, on my own time, when and where I felt like doing them. I wasn't concerned with what others thought, or whether they cared or not. It's not that I was apathetic, I would certainly help someone if they were in distress. It was more a question of keeping to myself. 

But since meeting Karla and spending time with her, I found myself exposed to feelings I had not experienced before. Karla's mood affected me like no one else could. If she was happy, I was happy; if she was sad, I'd be sad. I felt tremendous empathy for her. It took me too long to realize what was going on, that I made mistakes that could have easily have been avoided. And I was trying to avoid another by telling her she mattered to me.

"Oh! how considerate of you," Karla said sarcastically. "You might have shown more of it before taking off without a second thought, hmm?. And how long will this thoughtfulness last? Just until you get hooked by the next player that bats her eyes at you?" she said. 

She breathed hard to calm herself. 

"I don't know if you're just saying it or you really mean it," Karla said

"I told you already: I have no hidden purpose. I simply want to be with you, and I'll do whatever it takes," I admitted. 

Though Karla seemed distrustful of my words, she didn't dismiss them outright. 

"Then prove it!" Karla said. 

"How?" I asked. 

"Duel me," she replied. 

"What? Right now? Out here in the wilderness? I know we cleared the immediate area, but isn't that a little risky?" I asked.

"I don't care, I'll take my chances. Show me that you really mean it, I need more than just words. And to top it all off, you'll have to beat me. That way I'll know you're serious. I won't accept anything less," Karla explained. 

She opened her menu and sent me a duel request. The confirmation window appeared in front of me. I pursed my lips as I accepted the duel. 

I knew Karla would get in at least one hit so I opted for a health based duel, if your health dropped sufficiently, you'd lose the duel. As the timer counted down I positioned myself and held my battle axe in front of me. I didn't really want to do this, but I wasn't going to refuse Karla's ultimatum. She stood there in front of me, with her katana held in both hands. 

"And just so you know, I'm not going to go easy on you," she said as the timer counted its last few seconds.

The timer hit zero and Karla leaped towards me. I put up my battle axe and blocked her first two thrusts, activating defensive skills and targeting her blade. Her third thrust one got me in the arm. I cringed at the unpleasant feeling of the blade slicing a digital gash in my flesh. Not even five seconds into the duel she'd already gotten a hit. She wouldn't be easy to beat.

I swung my axe at her and was instantly blocked by her katana. I pushed her away from me to get a better swing with my blade, and she darted to the side to take a stab at my flank. I had to bring the axe down quickly just to block it and prevent her from doing any more damage. She then came at me with a slashing attack which I had to block with the battle axe's handle.

Back and forth, we exchanged blows. Karla was getting the upper hand, my health was dropping considerably faster than hers. More of her hits were actually hitting their target. But it would take her a fair number of hits to beat me. I had only gotten one hit in which took a considerable amount of her health. I needed to hit with a massive blow for the duel to end in my favor. 

To do that I had to break her defense. I opted to target her katana instead of her. I swung a few times until she held her katana in her right hand and leaned her left behind the blade. I swung and came down hard on the katana, and Karla had to take a step back to avoid falling over. I came in as fast as I could to take advantage of the break but she managed to absorb my blow. It wasn't hard enough.

Karla clenched her teeth and attacked with every skill she had in her arsenal. Stabs and slashes, coming from just about every direction. It took all my concentration just to have the axe in the right place to avoid getting impaled by her blade. I was successful in blocking most of her attacks, which made the duel drag on longer than necessary. Karla wasn't making enough headway and she grew impatient enough to rush things. She tried to chain the skills too quickly causing one of them to fail. It left her vulnerable for a moment while the skill reset itself.

That was my break. I swung the axe upward as hard as I could, it connected with her katana. She took some damage, but more importantly, she stumbled from the force of the blow. She was as vulnerable as she could possibly be. I moved the battle axe over my head and held the grip with two hands. The sword skill activated as I stepped forward and leaped in her direction. I swung the axe hard as I landed which caused her health to drop sufficiently to end the duel. 

Or at least that what I expected would happen, but the duel didn't end. I stood there with my battle axe lodged in the ground. I missed! My target was no longer where it should have been. I coughed and fell on all fours as I felt a sharp pain. A long blade was piercing my side, cutting my breath short. A message window appeared indicating that I had lost the duel as my health had dropped below the threshold.

That should not have been possible if I'd performed the move exactly at the right time. The thing was, I didn't! At the last moment I hesitated. Seeing Karla on the ground, threw me off. Here I was, executing a move that would have killed her, if this wasn't a duel in a computer game. I felt a surge of disgust as it seemed too real. But this wasn't real and it was essential that I win the duel. Karla had requested it and I just had to beat her. So I quickly shook off the feeling and executed my move, but by then it was too late. Karla had managed to roll away and deliver a decisive blow. 

"That was a close fight," Karla said as she sheathed her katana. 

She opened her menu and got out two health potions and handed one to me. I took it hesitantly. 

"Thank you," I said quietly. 

I took the potion and drank it slowly. Karla looked content, she had fought well and had won fair and square. I, on the other hand, felt as if I'd lost more than just the duel. I was supposed to win and things would go back to how they had been before. It was Karla's request and requirement and I couldn't live up to it. The only thing I could do now was to accept the loss and let her go, even if it was the last thing I wanted to do. I got up slowly, faced her, and waited till I got her attention. 

"Karla. I congratulate you on your win. That was a good fight but my strength is no match for your agility. Though you may not need it, I offer to escort you back to town," I said politely. 

I swallowed hard and try to conceal my emotions as I said:

"Then, I will leave you alone."


	57. Confession

"Oh no you won't!" Karla objected. "You want to take off again after all that? I won't let you!" she said, sweeping her arm in front of her as if she still wielded her katana. 

"But you said ... But I thought ... You said I had to win. But in the end I lost," I stuttered nervously. 

Karla laughed mockingly. 

"Of course you lost. You didn't really think your brutish battle axe could beat my katana," Karla teased. 

I was sincerely confused.

"I lied. You didn't need to beat me. I only wanted you to show me that you really meant it," she admitted as she came up closer. "Wolf, we work well together and I enjoy it when we party. I don't know how far we can get, but I want to put in the effort. And when you help me, it really makes a difference. I sincerely want us to continue working together," Karla said.

At that moment I realized that I had gotten my partner back. We would be able to hunt again, and reap the rewards that came with it. We were a good team and the creatures didn't stand much of a chance against the two of us. All the battles we had fought played back in my mind, with Karla surprising the creatures from behind with her katana as I slammed them to the ground with my battle axe. 

"But I don't just want to party with you," Karla continued. "Though we don't always see eye to eye, you've helped me when I needed it, supported me when things were rough. You also had your share of rough moments that I hope I managed to ease a little for you. But we also laughed together, teased each other, and shared some of the best moments I've ever had. I really like having you as a friend. I don't ever want to give that up," Karla declared.

I knew then, that I also had gotten my best friend back. She had shown me more kindness and support than anyone else. We had built a trust that only friends can have. No matter what happened, it wasn't who we were that would ever be a problem. We had grown to like each other, filling our cup of friendship until it overflowed and introduced us to a new set of emotions which still needed to be explored. 

Karla looked away.

"My feelings did not stop there though. When someone else came along, I felt embarrassingly jealous. I wondered how I could have these feelings for a friend, it just didn't make any sense. I didn't know how to deal with it, and I didn't want to cause a row, so I let you go. I thought my feelings would go back to normal once you were gone." 

She looked at me, her eyes now just glistening enough to betray her emotions. 

"It turns out, I couldn't bear it, I wasn't able to let you go. When I heard you were looking for me, I went into high gear. I wanted to reach out to you more than anything in the world. But out of selfishness, I wasn't going to just pretend like nothing happened. I wanted to know how much you really cared. That's why I played the angry girl, so that you wouldn't hold back. I deserve all the flak you gave me. I went all in, at the risk of you walking away," Karla said.

I moved closer to Karla.

"I didn't go through all that trouble just to walk away. But I honestly believed that you were serious about the outcome of the duel, and that your blade had killed any chances of me being with you. I feel like a fool that it took some distance between us to realize just how I feel. You are so important to me, without you everything loses its meaning," I said.

Karla closed the gap between us and gently rested her hand on my chest. 

"I want something from you. I realized it when we were apart. I hope you feel the same way as I do," Karla said. 

My feelings for her rose up and I felt my heart pounding in my chest and my face blush. I stared into those fantastic eyes of hers which were silently echoing her words. 

"I don't want us to ever be apart again. I want to be with you Wolf," Karla admitted.

I reached out my hands to her shoulders and pulled her close, and we kissed, without further hesitation or restraint. Everything around us became irrelevant, we were at that moment the only people that mattered in the world. Any fear about showing my feelings for Karla melted away. I could now let myself go, absorbed in the feelings we had for each other.

The familiar sound of the game generating creatures caught our attention. Mobs were respawning close by. Out of all the possible ways of disrupting the moment, we got the most typical threat of MMORPGs. Karla gently broke off and leaned her forehead on my chest. 

"Are you still good for a little hack and slash?" Karla chuckled. 

"You better believe it. I'm not going to let them get away with interrupting us," I joked 

We hunted together the rest of the day. I was happier than I had ever been. I reformed my party. I reconciled myself with Karla. And even though I hated the fact that we were stuck in a virtual world that could actually kill us, it had managed to bring us together. 

In the end we got far more than we could ever have imagined.


End file.
